


Moonshine

by OctolingO



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Fantasy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25959937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctolingO/pseuds/OctolingO
Summary: Time and Malon are happily married on their farm where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens.Not anymore.(Fantasy AU basically means most characters are gonna be fantasy creatures)
Comments: 51
Kudos: 137





	1. Eventful Patrol

“It’s time to wake up, Moonshine.” Malon spoke softly into Time’s ear, smiling as her beloved husband blinked open his eye. 

“Good morning.” He said, sitting and wincing. 

“Is something wrong?”

“My wings ache.” 

“Ah. Well I can fix that.” Malon ran her hands along her husband’s silvery wings, courtesy of his being a half fairy. The wings were too small for him to actually fly, but their color matched well with the fact that he was a deity of the moon. 

A deity of the moon, who had given up his right to be immortal for her. A no-name forest nymph. 

Malon bit her lip sympathetically as she found the ruffle in his wing: the cause of the aching. With a few choice tugs and gentle strokes, the kink was taken out of Time’s wing, and the half fairy smiled at her. 

“Thanks.”   
“No problem. Now, I really should go downstairs and start preparing breakfast.” Malon turned to go to her closet and change, but Time grabbed her hand. 

“Do you really have to? I’ve gone without breakfast before.” He said with a smirk. Malon laughed, causing small white chrysanthemums to appear around her head and float to the floor. 

“Hush yourself, charmer. Now I have to clean these up too.”

“I’ll do it.” Time told her. “You go do whatever you need to.” Malon nodded thankfully, turning and walking into their small closet. She grabbed the white skirt-and-purple-shirt combo she wore every day, plus her heavy leather apron. Typically, such clothing was not fit for forest nymphs, who wore sheer and feathery dresses of light fabric, but those types of clothes were too flimsy for any sort of hard work. She changed into the selected outfit, plus a pair of knee-high leather boots that were caked with a month’s worth of mud. Time whistled at her as she went downstairs, causing her to blush and a large red poppy to appear in her hand, which she threw at him.

As Malon was just finishing cooking the eggs, Time came downstairs fully dressed for a day of exploration. While Malon stayed home and kept after their farm, Time would patrol the forest surrounding the farm for enemies or allies. 

“Smells delicious.” He said. 

“You’ve said that every morning for the past three years.” Malon reminded him. 

“And I haven’t lied once.”   
“What about the time I burned them?”   
“...maybe I’ve lied once.” Malon nodded to herself in satisfaction as she gave Time his plate. The two of them ate quickly and in silence, eager to get on with their tasks so they could spend the evening as a couple. 

“See you later, darling.” Time said as he strapped his sword on his waist. 

“Be safe.” Malon said as he walked out the door. 

“I always am.” Time made sure to flash her a reassuring smile before he closed the door, and, contrary to what normally happened, an aster blossom fell from near her cheek and landed on the floor. Malon bent down with a frown, as white anemone flowers were what normally appeared when Time left. She’d realized at this point that they must have something to do with waiting. However, the aster flower was a mystery.  _ I should just be careful.  _ She thought. When she went out to do the chores—groom the horses, make sure the dog was well fed, check for eggs in the chicken coop, milk their one cow—she was sure to grab the sheathed dagger that sat on the table beside the door, just in case. 

As Time patrolled along the path he’d gradually made by walking the same loop over the past three years, he felt as if something was off. He wasn’t sure what, but something in the forest made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He found himself thankful it was not night, when the moon’s grotesque face wouldn’t be staring at him. There didn’t seem to be anything amiss in the forest itself, for all he could hear was the trickling of the stream that cut through the trees and some unabashedly loud bird calls. Even so, his knuckles were white on the hilt of his blade. 

A cold breeze spun through the air, tickling at his face and wings. It was accompanied with the rich smell of grass and dirt, which made Time pause. Any sort of wind that typically blew its way through the woods either smelled of hay from their farm, or rain from the stream. The breeze returned, faster and firmer than before. It was less a breeze and more a gust of wind, and Time decided that pulling out his sword would be a smart choice. 

Up ahead, he heard a shriek and a cracking of wood, as if someone had broken a stick.  _ That’s it.  _ Time adjusted his grip to one fit for fighting, then crept forwards and tried to get a good look at what he would be attacking. As he brushed aside a tree branch, a scaly green Lizalfos crashed through the trees ahead of him, chasing a disheveled boy with ridiculously long blonde hair and cracks that spread across the left side of his body. The Lizalfos did not see Time, clearly focused on the boy. The boy, on the other hand, noticed Time quickly. 

“Help me!” He said in a surprisingly gravelly voice. “Please!” Time nodded sharply, dashing through the trees after the Lizalfos. The boy was giving it a run for its money; dodging and leaping over obstacles in an attempt to gain some ground. Time knew from experience that outrunning a Lizalfos was near impossible, and yet this boy seemed as if he might be able to do just that. 

Until an unseen tree root tripped him, and the Lizalfos was on top of him. The boy screamed as the Lizalfos’ cleaver-shaped sword began to swing down. He curled himself into a tight ball, and the blade bounced off of a suddenly appearing red forcefield. Time’s eyes widened, but he did not waste time slicing the Lizalfos’ head from its shoulders with a blade that had been sharpened more than it had been used. The boy took a moment to stare in shock at the body before walking up to Time. Time absentmindedly noticed that one of the cracks went almost into his left eye. 

“Thank you.” He said. 

“You’re welcome. Are you alright?”

“I think so—Ah!” The boy cut himself off as he took a step, reaching and grabbing at his ankle. “I broke my ankle.” He said, sounding more annoyed than worried. “How did I not notice before?”

“It is very easy to not realize an injury in the heat of a battle or tense moment.” Time explained. “Nevertheless, you should heal it.”

“Can’t. I have some healing magic, but it only works if the wound is fatal.”

“You can do magic?” Time asked incredulously. 

“Yeah, but only some. Why, can you?”

“I can. I have a bit of control over the flow of time.”

“That’s awesome!” The boy said, still standing on one foot. “I can summon wind, lightning, heal myself, and create that forcefield you saw earlier.”

“I’m impressed.” Time said, and he was not lying. “Four different spells is quite a lot.”

“Yeah, well…” The boy rubbed the back of his neck. “I got them from friends. Before they died.”

“Oh.” Time licked his lips. “I’m sorry for mentioning it, then.” 

“I brought it up first.” The boy said, then tried to take a step forward and cried out again. 

“If you’d like, you can come to me and my wife’s farm. We have Red Potions there, and a lot of extra space.” 

“R-Really?”

“Sure. I’m Time.”

“Wild.”


	2. A Surprise Guest

As Time quite literally carried Wild back to the farmhouse, he saw Malon inside, silhouetted against the window by a candle. She was probably preparing dinner, and Time’s stomach rumbled. His wife had some of the best cooking he’d ever tasted. 

He opened the door, and Malon spun to greet him. Her blue eyes widened as she saw Wild, and an explosion of multicolored aster flowers appeared around her head, some sticking themselves in her fiery red hair while others fell to the floor. 

“Oh my! Who is this?” She said. 

“This is Wild. I rescued him from a Lizalfos on my patrol. He broke his ankle.”

“A Lizalfos in our forest? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Wild could use medical attention, though.”

“Of course, of course.” Malon snapped out of her shocked stupor and gathered the aster blossoms from the ground and her hair, throwing them out of the window. “Sit him in a chair, and then make sure the food doesn't boil over.” Time turned his attention to the stove, where Malon was boiling a collection of vegetables—including carrots, potatoes, and celery—was boiling in a pot of creamy soup. It looked delicious, and smelled even better than it looked. Time put Wild in a chair as his wife had instructed, then went over to stand next to the soup. Malon came back into the room with a small, mostly stale pinkish muffin. Time almost grimaced just looking at it; he’d eaten far too many of Malon’s Red Potion muffins for them to be any source of joy at this point—no matter how good they tasted, the memories associated with them dampened the taste. 

“Here, honey.” Malon said, and Time smiled at how instantly hospitable she was. “Eat this, it should heal the bone.” Wild took the muffin and ate it in a record two bites, then grinned at Malon. 

“This is good!” He said. “Red Potions normally taste bitter, but this is sweet!”

“Putting honey in the batter does wonders.” Malon said. Wild nodded in understanding. “Moonshine, could you stir the soup?” 

“Sure thing.” Time grabbed the wooden spoon and made sure nothing was sticking to the bottom of the pot. 

“Moonshine?” Wild asked with the ghost of a smirk as Time sat next to him. 

“I’m a moon deity.” Time said, watching Wild’s eyes widen. 

“Are you immortal?”

“Not anymore. I gave it up for her.” Time cast a lovesick look over his shoulder at Malon. He waited for Wild to make a gagging noise, but instead the boy seemed excited. 

“I used to be immortal too!” He exclaimed. “I’m an earth deity. My immortality got stolen by a bunch of cultists about seventeen years ago.”  
“Cultists?” Time did not like the sound of that.  
“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, they’ve been dealt with now.” Wild assured him. Time nodded. 

“Uh-huh.”

“Dinner’s ready!” Malon said, coming towards them with three bowls of soup balanced precariously on her arms. As she set them down, she spoke: “Sorry, Wild. I didn’t realize we’d be having a surprise third person dining with us.” 

“It’s fine, Miss Malon.” Wild said. “I’m sure however much you made is enough.” Malon smiled at him before sitting down and beginning to eat. 

“As always, your cooking is delicious.” Time said, smiling at his wife. She blushed, and miraculously managed to keep another poppy from appearing. 

“You always cook like this?” Wild said. Malon nodded. “Wow! It’s so good! I almost wish I could move in here!” He then blushed violently and looked at the floor. “I’m joking, of course.”   
“You know,” Malon said with a sly look at Time, “We have an extra room. If you’d like, you can stay with us.”

“Really? For how long?”

“For as long as you want.” Time said. Wild’s grin nearly split his face in two. 

“You know, that was very nice of you.” Time told his wife later that day, after Wild had gone to his new room, with the grin still on his face. 

“It gets a little lonely around here sometimes.” Malon admitted. “And it did seem like he needed a place to stay, the poor thing.”

“I agree.” Time made sure to take off his shoes before climbing into bed beside Malon, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck. A pink azalea flower floated down and nestled in Malon’s hair, and Time mentally congratulated himself. He’d noticed that the azaleas only appeared around him, when he was expressing affection towards his wife. “Goodnight, my love.” He said softly, knowing Malon was probably already half asleep, exhausted from her chores. 

“Goodnight, Moonshine.” He heard her mumble, before he drifted off to sleep.

Wild couldn’t sleep. The bed was the perfect blend of firm and soft, and the temperature in the room was the perfect blend of hot and cold, but he was finding it hard to fall asleep. Maybe it was from his years of sleeping on the ground in the woods, he wasn’t sure. He was sure, however, that it was inconvenient. He didn’t even feel tired, despite eating one of the most filling meals he’d had in the past month.  _ I probably shouldn’t overextend my stay.  _ He thought to himself.  _ Three days, then I leave.  _ Wild pulled the blanket up to his nose, digging his fingers into the soft material. He could hear an owl hooting outside his window, as well as flapping of wings—probably bats. He strained his ears to pick up a third sound, hiding under the owl and bat noises. It almost sounded like footsteps, but that didn’t make any sense. It was almost the middle of the night. 

Nevertheless, Wild caught himself readying his wind magic (though the lightning was more powerful, it would be much too destructive). The noise, which he was almost completely sure was footsteps at this point, got closer and louder. Wild slowly sat up and trained his eyes on the window as a blonde boy leapt through it, landed in a roll, and screamed:

“Close the window!” Wild wasted no time; he sprung out of the bed and lunged, slamming the window shut with a noise so loud it rattled the vase of rhododendrons on the bedside table. A red-skinned Bokoblin banged into the window, causing Wild to fall back with a shriek. He instinctively activated his forcefield before realizing the Bokoblin couldn’t get in. 

“Are you okay?” Time demanded, standing in the doorway shirtless. Malon was next to him, clutching a group of begonia flowers. The candle in Time’s hand allowed the half-fairy to see Wild, plus the boy who had just tumbled through the window. “Who is this?”

“I don’t know,” Wild began, “He—”

“S-Sorry sir,” The boy said sheepishly, “I’m Wind. I was being chased by a Bokoblin.”

“Is that what the thump was?” Malon inquired. 

Wild nodded. “That, and me slamming the window shut.” 

“Alright, Wind, I think we need to have a chat.” Time said, looking very intimidating in the flickering candlelight. Wind gulped, following Time and Malon into the kitchen—Wild came too; mostly because Time hadn’t said he couldn’t come. 

“You said you ended up in our house because of a Bokoblin?” Time clarified. 

“Yup.”

“Care to tell us how that happened?” Even though Time did not have his sword, he certainly looked as if he could still destroy Wind if the need arose. 

“I’m a selkie.” Wind began. “You know, a person who can turn into a seal when they go in water?”

“I know what a selkie is.” 

“Great. I mean, technically I turn into a sea lion, not a seal, but—”

“Wind.” Time interrupted. 

“Right. Sorry. So, I lost my Transformation Stone a month or so ago, in the Lost Woods. I assume you know where the Lost Woods are?”

“I do.” 

“Alright, so I was traveling through them, and I got attacked by some fire breathing something—I don’t know what, I smelled smoke and then the next thing I knew I was in Kakariko Village, without my Stone! I decided to look around for whatever had taken it, and then the Bokoblin found me.”

“You’re a selkie?” Wild breathed once Wind had finished his story. “That’s awesome!” Wind blushed. 

“So, Wind. Do you think your Transformation Stone could still be in the Lost Woods?” Malon said with a tilt of her head. 

“It might be. I was… a little afraid to go there on my own.” Malon’s face softened. 

“That’s perfectly understandable. It’s a pretty spooky place.” She assured him. Wind seemed to straighten in his chair. 

“Wind,” Time said, and he glanced at Malon, who nodded, “You can stay with us and Wild until you find your Stone.”   
“I can?” Wind exclaimed. “Thanks!”

“You can sleep in the other bed in my room!” Wild volunteered. Wind nodded enthusiastically. 

“We should really get back to bed, if we’re going to venture to the Lost Woods tomorrow.” Malon said, ever the voice of reason. 

“I agree.” Time and Malon left the room, the stairs creaking as they retreated to their bedroom. 

“He’s kinda scary.” Wind whispered, leaning towards Wild.

“A little.” As the two of them got into their respective beds, Wind couldn’t help but grin. He hadn’t had a good place to sleep since leaving Outset Island, and that had been almost a year ago.  _ It’s almost lucky that Bokoblin chased me.  _ He thought, before drifting off to sleep. 


	3. The Lost Woods

By the time Wild and Wind were awake, Time and Malon had already eaten breakfast. Malon was nowhere to be seen, but Time was leaning against a doorframe when the two boys stumbled into the kitchen. 

“Good morning, sleepyheads. Breakfast has been ready for a while.” Time gestured to two plates of scrambled eggs. Wild and Wind quickly ate them, ignoring the fact that they were cold. “Malon is already out doing chores, before you ask.”

“Are we really going to the Lost Woods today?” Wind said through a mouthful of food.

“We’re going as soon as you two finish eating. Do either of you have weapons?” Both boys shook their heads. 

“I don’t really need one, since I have magic.” Wild said. Wind stared at him.

“You can do magic?”   
“Four different kinds! I’ll tell you about it later.” 

“Wind, would this work as a weapon?” Time held up a large kitchen knife, large enough that it needed its own sheath. 

“It should be perfect!” Wind said, accepting the knife. “Thanks, Mr. Time!”   
“Just Time is fine.” Said the half fairy. 

“I’m ready to go!” Wild said, standing up and putting his hands on his hips. 

“Great. Follow me.” 

As the three boys walked into Kakariko Village, which was about a mile or so down the road from Time’s house, Wild began to feel a bit overwhelmed. He’d never been a big fan of crowded spaces, and though it was not a particularly busy time of day, there were still people bustling about through the streets. 

“Remind me why we have to go through here?” Wild said, voice uncharacteristically faint. 

“Because it’s the most direct route to the Lost Woods.” Time answered with a glance down at Wild. “Are you alright?”

“Just overwhelmed. I’ll be fine.” Wild said, refusing to make eye contact with Time. They passed a lot of shops on their way through the Village—one sold swords, another shields, another potions, another maps. They considered buying a map, until Wind reminded them that maps were completely useless in the Lost Woods. 

“We should probably figure out a way to divert the magic away from ourselves once we’re in.” Wind was saying, referring to the mysterious magic forces that ran amok in the Woods. 

“No need.” Time and Wild said simultaneously. “I can divert the flow.”   
“Both of you can?” Wind asked in shock. 

“Moon deity,” Wild said with a point to Time, “earth deity.” He pointed at himself.

“Wow. That’s lucky.”

“Very much so.” Time agreed. “Now, we should get going towards the Woods.”

“Wait.” Wild put a hand on Time’s arm. “Do you see that?” As the three boys looked, they could see a gang of boys going down an alleyway, looking as if they were going to beat someone up. The villagers around the boys were pointedly ignoring whatever was going on. “We should help.” Without waiting, Wild was off down the street. Wind and Time followed him, and they found that the boys had indeed been setting off to beat someone up. 

A scrawny boy with fluffy brown hair was in the alley, his golden eyes full of tears. He had a pair of pink butterfly wings sprouting from his back, and they were full sized—marking him as a pureblooded fairy. 

“Freak!” One of the boys spat as he threw a punch at the fairy. The other boys exclaimed similar jeers as they attacked the fairy, and Wild grit his teeth. His eyes landed on a broom, leaning innocently against a wall of a house. Wild wrapped his fingers around the firm wooden handle and strode into the alley as if he owned it. 

“Hey! Back off.” The boys turned, seeing Wild standing there with the broom gripped like a quarterstaff. One of them started to laugh, which prompted the others to join in. 

“Look! It’s another freak!” Wild’s eyes narrowed, and the air seemed to crackle with electricity. Time prayed that Wild wasn’t about to electrocute seven Hylian boys. But no, it seemed Wild thought that would be much too easy. He started by punching one of the boys in the face, and he dropped like a stone. This threw the others into action, rushing towards Wild as a single, albeit rather uncoordinated, unit. Wild swept the broom in a wide circle, catching the feet of two other boys and sending them to the ground. He smacked one in the temple with the broom’s handle, and another was taken out by a surprisingly well executed roundhouse kick. One even managed to trip over his downed friend, leaving the final boy standing alone amidst his groaning companions. 

“Woah man!” The boy said. “We didn’t want any trouble!”   
“And yet,” Time stepped into the alley, “you found some anyway.”   
“Holy Hylia.” The boy said under his breath. He sprinted from the alley, the other boys helping each other follow the boy who was seemingly the leader. The fairy, who had been watching with a look of shock on his bruised face, choked out a sob. 

“Ow…” He barely touched his cheek, and yelped. “That is so bruised.”

“Are you alright? Did you break anything?” Wild asked, still gripping the broom as he knelt in front of the fairy. 

“No, I didn’t. Thanks for saving me.” The boy smiled brightly, the freckles on his nose and cheeks sparkling. “What brings you three to Kakariko?”

“We’re going to the Lost Woods to look for my Transformation Stone.” Wind supplied. “I’m a selkie.” He added. 

“Oh. One of my friends went missing in the Woods about a week ago.” The fairy said, a frown staining his face. 

“You should come with us!” Wind said. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Hyrule. Yes, that’s my actual name. I picked it for myself.”

“Interesting choice.” Time teased. Hyrule’s face flushed. “Well, if you can walk, then we should get going. Now we have two things to look for in the Woods.”  _ I’m going to have some serious explaining to do when I get home.  _ He thought as Wind helped Hyrule to his feet and the now four of them set off towards the Woods.

“This place is creepy.” Hyrule said in a small voice, as they stood before the wind-worn stone arch that marked the entrance to the Lost Woods. “But, at least I’m not going in alone!” He said, perking up a bit. Wild grinned. 

“Well, we should get to work. I would rather not spend any more time here than I need to.” Time said, steeling himself as he led the way into the Woods. 

Almost immediately, the white fog that filled the Woods closed in on them from every angle. Wild shivered. Wind, on the other end of the spectrum, dramatically flung his hands out, and a bit of the fog was pushed back—allowing them to see ten feet in every direction, as opposed to six. 

“There’s a reason my name is Wind.” The selkie said mysteriously and with a smirk as they pressed on through the Woods. Time began to get the feeling he was being watched, and he knew it wasn’t night yet, so it couldn’t be because of the moon that had yet to loom above him. 

“Stay on your guard, boys.” He said, though he could tell the other three were already heeding the instruction. Wind had his hand on his knife, Wild’s knuckles were white around the broom, and Hyrule’s fingers were sparkling with what looked like fire.  _ I sure hope he doesn’t use fire in here.  _ Time thought uneasily. As they got further and further into the Lost Woods, the feeling of being watched intensified until Time caught himself looking over his shoulder almost as much as he was looking ahead. 

Suddenly, a large furry shape exploded from the trees, slamming into Wind and knocking the small boy to the ground. 

“A wolf!” Hyrule screamed. Wild wasted no time smacking the wolf with his broom, and while the wolf snarled and got off of Wind, the broom broke in half. 

“Are you alright?” Time said urgently as he unsheathed his sword. 

“Fine, just out of breath.” Wind coughed. The wolf snarled, backing up and baring its teeth. Time prepared to engage in a fight which he knew he wouldn’t lose when Hyrule spoke:

“That’s a person.” The fairy’s voice was full of shock. 

“Are you sure?” Wild asked. 

“As sure as I can be. Maybe the magic of the Woods cursed them into this form.”

“It’s possible.” Time conceded. “How do you propose we un-curse them? We can’t exactly leave.”   
“This might do the trick.” Hyrule said as a silvery arrow materialized in his hands. He started towards the wolf with the arrow clutched in one hand, and the beast growled at him, snapping its jaws. As Hyrule got closer, it leapt towards him. Wild reacted by slamming one end of his broom into its ribs, eliciting a loud whine. The wolf snarled again and jumped at Wild, who backflipped out of the way and delivered a wicked flurry of smacks. The wolf stood, panting, and unbeknownst to it, Wind came up behind with the silver arrow—Hyrule had given it to him. 

Wind plunged the arrow into the wolf’s back, just above its back leg. The wolf’s eyes (which Time noticed with a start were blue) widened and it howled, before collapsing and being enveloped in a field of black energy. As the energy cleared, there was a Hylian boy, probably about nineteen, laying in front of them. There was a puncture wound where Wind had stabbed the arrow, but that wasn’t what caught Time’s attention. 

What  _ did  _ catch his attention was the black lines running up and down the boy’s arms and back. He had a marking on his forehead, and then the lines swirled around his shoulder blades and snaked down his arms. A complex and geometrical pattern covered his back. The boy groaned, blinking open his eyes—which were the same blue that the wolf’s had been. Said blue eyes saw Time, Wind, Wild, and Hyrule standing around him, and the boy immediately scrambled backwards and pressed himself against a tree. 

“W-Who are you?”

“My name is Time. This is Hyrule, Wild, and Wind.” Time said, gesturing to each boy in turn. 

“What’s your name?” Wind asked him. 

“I’m Twilight. You… probably shouldn’t be anywhere near me.”   
“And why’s that?”

“Because people will talk.”   
“They already have.” Time guessed. “We make an unusual group.” 

“But I’m a demon!” Twilight exclaimed. “H-Half demon, anyway.”   
“That doesn’t mean you’re any less fit to travel with us.” Time countered. “Besides, you’re injured.” As if just noticing the injury, Twilight stared at the wound on his leg.

“Is that how you got me to transform?”   
“Yup!” Wind said with a nod. 

“I can heal you, if you want.” Hyrule volunteered softly. Twilight thought for a moment, then nodded. He stood, leaning against the tree. 

“Go ahead.” Twilight told him. Hyrule’s hands glowed pink, and in a few moments Twilight’s wound was completely closed. “Thanks.” 

“You’re welcome.”

“So, what brought you to the Woods?” Time asked. Twilight cast his eyes at the ground. 

“I was looking for something. I thought it might be here.”   
“What were you looking for?” Wind said. 

“A piece of a mirror.” Twilight said, his tone indicating he did not want Wind to press him about this mirror any further. Wind got the message and didn’t comment, thought what Twilight said about a mirror got Time thinking. He’d heard of magical mirrors with unforetold powers, and he himself had been in possession of a similar item once. Maybe whatever Twilight was looking for could be found when they found Wind’s Transformation Stone.

“We’re looking for my Transformation Stone.” Wind explained. “I’m a selkie, and I lost it. Hyrule said he lost a friend in the Woods, so hopefully we can find the friend, too! You should come with us, and maybe we can find your mirror piece!”   
“Are you sure? Even knowing what I am?”   
“Frankly, I don’t care.” Wild said. “We could use the extra hands; who knows what’s going to be in the center of these Woods.”

“A-Alright.” Twilight rubbed the back of his neck, the dark streaks on his arms standing out starkly against his skin. “Thanks.”   
“No problem!” 


	4. Creature in the Tree

“Holy Farosh…” Wild said in awe. “You think this is where we need to be?”

“I’d say it is.” Time agreed. The five of them stood before a massive tree, its top hidden by the Lost Wood’s mist. The tree itself was covered in knots and bulges, hinting at previous hardships. There was a gaping hole in the center that led, supposedly, to the interior of the tree itself. 

“Let’s go.” Wind said. He led as they ventured into the tree. 

About fifteen minutes in, Time realized two things: one, this tree was way bigger than it had looked. Two, they couldn’t see much of anything. 

“It’s really dark in here.” Hyrule said, voicing everyone’s concerns. 

“Really?” Twilight questioned. “I can see just fine.”

“Aren’t you part wolf?” Wild deadpanned. 

“No, I’m part demon. I can turn  _ into  _ a wolf.”

“But you probably inherited some wolfish traits.” Wild guessed. “Example, night vision.”   
“I suppose you could be right.”

“Twilight, why don’t you lead?” Time said. “Since you can see, you should be the one to make sure we don’t run into trouble.”

“Oh, okay. Sure.” Twilight moved to the front of the group and led them further and further into the tree, until the tunnel widened and they stepped out into a cave. There was a pile of treasure in the center, and a humongous green dragon slept on top of the treasure, each breath ruffling its brownish whiskers. Among the treasure, there was a person, tied by a golden chain. The person had blonde hair streaked through with pink, and the pink coloring was carried onto the horns that curled from their head, as well as the scales on their neck and arms. 

“Legend!” Hyrule whisper-shouted, making a move to run forward at the person—Legend, apparently. Twilight reached out a hand and stopped him before letting out a hiss of pain and releasing his hold.

“Are you okay?” Wild asked. Twilight looked at his hand for a moment longer, then nodded. 

“Fine. I just can’t touch light creatures. Half-demon.”

“What classifies as a light creature?” Time said. 

“Fairies, angels, nymphs, light deities.” Twilight said, as if he were reciting a list. Time tried to keep his disappointment from showing on his face. If Twilight couldn’t touch any of those, that included himself and Malon. And he was starting to get rather fond of his ragtag group of boys. 

“Guys!” Wind whispered. “Dragon?”

“Right.” Time scanned the pile of treasure. “Do you see your Transformation Stone anywhere in that pile?”

“Yeah!” Wind pointed at a glowing stone about the size of a strawberry. “There!”

“How do we get it and rescue Legend without waking the dragon though?” Hyrule said. 

“I can try to bargain with it?” Wind tried. “I can speak Ancient Hylian, which I think is what dragons speak.”   
“Bargain? With a dragon?” Twilight sounded skeptical. Wind, however, nodded. 

“Yep. I’ve done it before, to rescue a harpy friend of mine.” He confirmed. Time made a mental note to ask Wind about talking to a dragon to rescue a harpy later. 

“Are you sure it will work?”

“No. But it’s better than trying to fight a dragon.” Wind pointed out. Twilight sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, wincing when they caught on a tangle. 

“Fine. What do you have to bargain with?”

“I have a knife.” Wind held it up. “And… uh…”

“You can use these.” Hyrule said, holding out a pair of colored rings. “I don’t know how valuable they are, but maybe the dragon will find some use for them.” 

“Thanks.” Wind said as he pocketed the rings. “Alright, wish me luck!” 

“Good luck.” Wild and Hyrule chimed. Twilight swallowed hard, face even paler than usual. Time offered a hand for Twilight to grab, but the half demon gave him a wan smile and Time remembered with a jolt that Twilight couldn’t accept his hand. Time withdrew his hand, face burning with shame. Wind approached the dragon, hoping his legs didn’t shake and reveal how nervous he was. As he approached, he stuck out a hand and gingerly brushed one of the whiskers. The dragon blinked open dark brown eyes and immediately reared up. 

_ “Wait! I want to bargain!”  _ Wind said in Ancient Hylian. 

_ “You can speak my tongue?” _

_ “Yes. And I would like to trade you for that glowing stone and your prisoner.” _ _   
_ _ “Why, he is not my prisoner, he is my guest! He can leave whenever he pleases.” _

_ “You mean he could if he wasn’t unconscious.”  _ As soon as the words left Wind’s mouth, he winced. 

_ “You have a sharp tongue for someone so little on in years. What is your name?” _

_ “Wind.” _

_ “An interesting one. I am called Deku.”  _

_ “Hello, Deku. For bargaining, I have brought these two jeweled rings and this weapon.” _

_ “A weapon?”  _ Deku’s voice was full of rage.  _ “You dare think I, a dragon of relative peace, would have use for such a pitiful item? You do not deserve any of my treasure, let alone your own life!”  _ Deku stood on all fours, and Wind realized just how close he was to the dragon’s mouth. He turned, running and leaping to the side as a jet of flame shot past him. 

“I made him mad!” He shouted in Hylian as he drew his blade. 

“We can see that, thanks!” Wild said, readying his broken broom and looking not too happy about it. 

“I knew this would happen.” Twilight muttered, before morphing into his wolf form. Time mimicked Wind and drew his own sword, whilst Hyrule dashed over to Legend and began untying him. Deku blasted a flame in Wild’s direction, who  _ re _ directed it away from himself and towards the dragon with a gust of wind. Deku roared, his booming voice shaking the tree. 

“I got the stone!” Wind said, holding it up.    
“Good! Now let’s focus on getting out of here!” Time shouted back, ducking under Deku’s tail and slashing upwards, his sword finding a chink in the green scales and making Deku roar again. Twilight was running in between the dragon’s ankles and nipping at him in an attempt to divert his focus, while Wild readied what looked like a blast of lightning. Deku suddenly spun, catching Twilight as he did so and flinging the wolf across the room. Twilight shifted back into his human form, shaking his head and dizzily rising to his feet. Hyrule had managed to untie Legend and shake the boy awake, and the two of them were stumbling towards the exit to the tree. Hyrule was shouting at Legend, who was shouting right back. Deku noticed them and shot another spire of flame, and Time gasped. He was much too far away to be of any assistance, since he and Wild were busy distracting the dragon. Wind was trying, but his small knife wasn’t doing much to the dragon’s hard scales. 

Twilight, however, was close enough. He dove, shoving Legend and Hyrule out of the way. He also was lucky, and avoided the flames. 

Time’s suspicions about Wild’s magic were confirmed when a bolt of electric energy flung down from seemingly nowhere and struck Deku in the forehead, right between his eyes. The dragon let out one last defiant roar before collapsing; unconscious, not dead.

“We need to get out of here!” Time raised his voice. 

“Agreed!” Wind and Wild wasted no time running from the tree, with Twilight following and even going so far as to pick up Hyrule, who it seemed had rolled his ankle when Twilight had shoved him. Legend was following behind, spitting out curses faster than Time had ever heard anyone speak. Time himself was the last to leave, after making sure everyone else was out safely. 

The now six of them ran for almost two miles before their adrenaline depleted and they collapsed into a panting heap. Twilight roughly deposited Hyrule on the ground, groaning. 

“Are you alright?” Hyrule exclaimed, rushing over and readying his magic, which he was suddenly thankful could be performed without physical contact.

“I… will be.” Twilight spat blood onto the ground. “Must’ve bit my cheek.” He said, running his tongue over his canine-sharp teeth. 

“Is anyone else hurt?” Hyrule said, spinning in a wide circle.

“Uh… guys?” Wind said in a very small voice. “I…” Time saw with horror the steadily spreading red stain on Wind’s shirt. “He got me.” The selkie fell backwards, and Hyrule made a strangled sound as he started trying to heal the wound. 

“Come on!” He cried. “Why won’t you heal?” 

“Wounds inflicted by dragons are a special breed.” A voice said, and they turned to see a brown haired boy with a pair of red and gold wings sprouting from his back.  _ An angel… _ Time thought, considering bowing his head. The angel spared a look of disdain at Twilight, who was still groaning and massaging his hands. “I can help. The name’s Sky.” 


	5. Pumpkins

“Nice to meet you Sky,” Wild snapped, “but our friend is dying. We could use some help.”

“Right, of course.” Sky’s face went red, an expression Time was amused to see on an angel. He’d never pictured angels getting flustered. Sky knelt beside Wind, with Wild and Hyrule having to move back to get out of the way of his wings. Sky chanted something in Ancient Hylian as he placed his hands on Wind’s injury, frowning even as he did so. Gradually, the wound closed, though the bloodstains on Wind’s shirt did not look like they were going anywhere. Wind’s breathing gradually evened out, though he did not wake up. 

“Well?” Wild demanded. 

“He should be fine now!” Sky said with a huge grin. 

“Thank you.” Wild rubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair. 

“How can we repay you?” Time asked, refusing to add an honorific. If Sky noticed, he didn’t comment on it. 

“I don’t think there is much you could do—”   
“Wait.” Time interrupted, and for a moment he thought he was going to be scorched with holy flames. When he wasn’t, he continued: “You could stay with me and my… companions. There is a large barn on our property that would work perfectly.”   
“A barn?” Legend whispered to Hyrule, who shrugged. Sky, on the other hand, nodded. 

“I do need a place to stay, even if it is just for a week. Alright, I accept! What should I call you?”

“I’m Time. This is Wind, Wild, Hyrule, Legend, and Twilight.” Sky nodded at each of the boys, except for Twilight—who got another disdainful stare, and he retaliated by growling at Sky. 

“Is…  _ that  _ one of your companions?” Sky asked, and even though he was not pointing it was clear he was talking about Twilight.

“Yes.” Time said. Twilight’s head snapped up and he stared at the half-fairy in shock. “If he would like, he will be staying with us too.” Sky rolled his eyes.

“While I cannot see why you would want to stay with a demon, I suppose you would be in even more danger if I did not accept your offer. Where do you stay?” 

“A farm just outside of Kakariko Village.”

“I used to live in a farming village.” Twilight said softly. 

“Really?” Wild inquired. “What did they grow?”

“We had goats, and pumpkins.” Twilight answered with a grin. “It was amazing.”

“Pumpkins?” Wind’s voice was thick with sleep, and he blinked his eyes open. “Why are we talking about pumpkins?” 

“Wind!” Wild said. He hugged the other boy tightly. “Don’t you ever go getting hurt like that again.” 

“It’s not like I meant to.” Wind muttered. He noticed Sky, standing off to the side. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Sky. I healed you.”   
“Oh, you did? Thanks.” 

“You’re welcome.” Wind nodded, seemingly satisfied, before turning to Time. 

“Are we gonna go home now?”

“Yes, we are. And I am going to have to explain all of this to my wife.” Time winced as he thought about Malon’s reaction to him coming home with four more people than he’d left with. 

“Well, putting it off won’t solve anything.” Legend said. “Why don’t you show us this farm?” 

As Time got closer to the farm, he found himself getting more and more nervous. What if Malon kicked him out? What if Malon kicked the boys out? What if Malon left? And then there was the trouble of asking these boys to sleep in a barn. If Malon let them stay, he’d have to put them to work on fixing it up and making it into something usable for sleeping. He of course wouldn’t be able to renovate the whole barn, since they still needed space for Epona and her foal (who had yet to have a name, as she still had to survive her first year). 

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, voice soft as he walked up beside Time. The older man almost jumped in surprise, as he hadn’t even heard Twilight approaching. “You seem troubled.”

“I’m just worried about my wife. We haven’t had this much excitement since an Octorok smashed the window open.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “I just hope she doesn’t kick me out, or any of you.” 

“She wouldn’t dare make Sky leave.” Twilight pointed out with a hint of bitterness. “As he’s made quite clear, he’s above beasts like me.” 

“Sky could change his mind.” Time told him. “It’s rather unlikely, but I suppose it could happen.” Twilight shrugged. 

“I suppose you’re right. I really don’t mind if you don’t want me to stay, though.” Time put his hand on Twilight’s shoulder and quickly pulled it back as the half-demon bit his lip. 

“You can stay. In fact, I want you to.” Time said. Twilight smiled.

“Time Link Forrester!” Malon shouted. “Why on earth are all these boys here?” A flurry of petunia flowers were appearing around her.

“I… found them, and thought they needed a place.” Time said, wringing his hands. “They can sleep in the barn, right?”   
“The barn? We have horses in there! We can’t possibly ask them to sleep with the horses?”

“M-Ma’am,” Hyrule began, “I assure you, we don’t mind. If it helps, we could do work around the farm!”

“Do we have to?” Legend whined, but Hyrule elbowed his ribs and shut him up. Malon sighed, rubbing her forehead. 

“You and I are going to have a talk later.” She said to Time, before turning to the boys. “You can stay in our barn, but you are doing chores and you’d better not start any trouble.”

“We won’t.” Sky assured her. “Most of us, anyway.” He muttered and glared at Twilight, who noticed and bared his teeth. Time was struck once again by the sheer wolfishness of Twilight’s mannerisms, and how rude Sky was in comparison to how he acted around everyone else. Hopefully they could get over that. 

“That’s good to hear.” Malon said. “My husband can show you where you can sleep. Time, I don’t want them disturbing the horses.”

“Sure thing, Malon.” Time turned, beckoning the boys over towards the faded red barn. It had originally been bright red, the color of roses, but wind and rain and time had dulled its color. 

The interior of the barn was in better condition than the outside. Out of the four horse stalls, only one was occupied, by a brown mare—Epona—and her small brown and white foal. The rest of the barn was open, save for a massive pile of hay bales in a corner. There was a slightly rusted ladder that went up to the loft.

“I would recommend you sleep there.” Time said, pointing at the loft. “It’s a bit dusty, but it’s better than sleeping on the floor here.” Out of all of them, Legend was the only one who shuddered as he looked at the hay and dirt covered floor. 

“That works perfectly!” Wild said with a grin. “Do you mind if we use the blankets from your guest room?” Time blinked in surprise. 

“No, of course. Go right ahead.”

“Thanks! Hey Twilight, race you to the house.” Time half expected Twilight to say no, but he merely rolled his eyes. 

“Ready, set…” Wind paused, seeing Wild and Twilight assume their positions, “go!” The two of them were out of the barn before they could blink. 

“Running is such a pain.” Legend muttered. 

“Couldn’t agree with you more.” Wind said. “Now let’s get up to the loft!” The selkie boy led the way up the ladder, with Sky and Hyrule choosing to fly up instead of climb. 

Time was amused at how excited Wind was about the loft. It really wasn’t much, essentially a glorified inside deck, but the boy seemed to treat it as if it was the greatest thing in all of Hyrule. 

“Alright! I want to sleep right here!” Wind stood in front of one of the slightly fogged over windows.

“Me and Legend will sleep over here.” Hyrule said from a spot wedged against the wall. Legend nodded. Just then, Twilight climbed up the ladder with a pile of blankets on his back and a pillow in his mouth. He spoke once he removed the pillow. 

“Nobody panic, the pillow is mine. And I won the race, by the way.”

“Only because I got tired.” Wild said, coming up behind him with his own formidable collection of blankets and quilts. “Alright, everyone take your pick of what you want.” Twilight took the pillow and a black blanket with a teal stripe and sat in the far end of the loft, as far away from the others as he could get. 

“Twilight!” Wild said, practically skipping over to him with his own blanket—brown with yellow and blue spots. “Can I sleep over here?”

“S-Sure!” Twilight seemed shocked that anyone would want to. “I don’t mind.” 

“Well in that case, I am going to stay right here.” Sky said from the other end of the loft. Twilight glanced at the ground for a moment before nodding. Time couldn’t help but wonder if there was any way to get Sky and Twilight to agree, without making it clear that was what he was trying to do. 

“Tomorrow,” Time began, “your first chore is going to be helping me fix the barn. Most of the outside has to have new siding and new paint.” The others nodded, looking around at each other. 

“Sounds good!” Twilight said. 

“Yeah, I could use something to do.” Legend muttered. 

“Good night, boys. I won’t wake you up tomorrow, but don’t expect it to become a habit.”

“Alright.” Sky said. He sounded relieved. Time climbed back down the ladder and went towards the house, wondering what Malon would have to say to him behind closed doors. 


	6. Chopping Wood

Time woke up with the sun, as he and his wife usually did. Petunias, yellow carnations, and queen anne’s lace blooms littered the floor; results of last night’s argument. Time winced just looking at the pile of flowers. 

“Morning, my love.” He whispered in Malon’s ear, half expecting her to correct him. She didn’t, only blinked open her eyes and looked up at him. 

“Already? Guess I’d better get to work.”

“I have to too. The boys and I are going to redo the outside of the barn.”

“But what about your patrols?”

“I’ve barely ever found anything in those. I think I can go without doing them long enough to make sure the boys know what they’re doing.” 

“Just make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew.” Malon said. Time smiled at her. 

“When have I ever before?”

“Oh, let’s see, when you tried to build the whole barn in a week, when you bought three cats, when you tried to find the three cats, when—”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Time laughed. “I really do need to get going.”

“Be careful, as always.” Malon said as she got out of bed and rummaged through the closet. 

“I will.” Time said over his shoulder. When he got downstairs, he grabbed a tray of Deku seed muffins for the boys to eat, as they were probably hungry. 

Time stepped up into the loft, where everyone was already awake—save for Sky, who was miraculously still asleep. Twilight seemed to be fighting with Legend over something, it looked like a rope. The odd thing was that while Legend was pulling with both hands, Twilight was using his teeth. And he seemed to be winning. 

“Am I interrupting something?” Time asked, amused. Twilight spared a small glance in Time’s direction, but he did not relinquish his hold on the rope. Legend, however, let go quickly and sent Twilight reeling backwards from all the force he had been pulling with. 

“Hand it over.” Wild whispered to Wind, who frowned and handed over a Blue Rupee. Time almost laughed at the fact that the two boys had been betting over a tug of war game. 

“Here’s your rope, Legend.” Twilight said, using his hand this time to give the rope back to Legend, who grabbed it and clutched it to his chest. Time figured being half-dragon had something to do with how protective he seemed of a simple piece of rope. 

“How did I not pull your teeth out?” Legend demanded. “I was wearing my Power Gloves!” 

Twilight shrugged. “I guess growing up on a farm had its perks.”

“So does your being a wolf shifter.” Hyrule said. 

“True.”

“So, Time,” Wild began, “are we working on the barn today?”

“Indeed you are. We’re going to need some wood first.”

“Which shouldn’t be hard to find since we’re in the middle of a forest.” Legend quipped. Hyrule elbowed him, but Time nodded. 

“Yes. I want all of you to go out and get wood, then bring whatever you can find back here. Try not to cut down any trees if you can help it.”   
“Sure thing!” Twilight said, leaping to his feet. “Should we wake up Sky?”

“Probably.” Wind said. He walked over and shook Sky’s shoulder, but the angle did not stir. “Huh. Must be a heavy sleeper.”

“Wait. I got this.” Legend grinned; an expression that unnerved Time just a bit. Legend pulled out a horn that appeared to be made from a shell, put it right next to Sky’s ear, and blew into it as hard as he could. Everyone had to cover their ears due to the sheer volume of the sound, Twilight going so far as to yelp and whine—extra sensitive hearing had its drawbacks. Sky, on the other hand, blinked his eyes open with a yawn. 

“What was that?” He said. “I heard something.”

“It was Legend.” Wild said. “He blew that horn thing to wake you up.”

“It’s called the Conch Horn.” Legend supplied. “Time said it’s  _ time _ to get to work.” Wind and Wild snickered, whilst Time himself merely rolled his eyes. He’d heard many a joke and pun about his name. 

“Darn.” Sky muttered. “I was having such a nice dream, to.” At this, Legend seemed to flinch, but no one besides Time noticed. 

“Well, you can finish your dream later.” The half fairy said. “As I have said, you are going to go find wood in the forest. Preferably without cutting down any trees.”   
“Okay.” Sky yawned again. Time resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the sleepy boy, realizing this was probably how most of his mornings were going to go from now on. Frankly, he wasn’t opposed to it. 

“Well, get to work. I’m going to make sure we have the tools we need, and if we don’t I’m going to buy them in Kakariko, so don’t freak out if I’m not here when you guys come back.”

“We won’t.” Legend scoffed. “We’re not children.” 

“Wind is.” Hyrule pointed out. 

“Am not!” 

“This forest is huge, and yet we can’t find a single good stick!” Legend exclaimed.    
“What are you talking about?” Wild said from up in a tree. “There are lots of dead branches up here!”

“Yeah, but I’m not about to climb a tree just for a stupid branch!”

“Wild, please be careful!” Twilight called. “We don’t want you to break anything if you fall!”   
“I won’t!” Wild said as he inched further along a quite thin branch, and Legend could visibly see Twilight paling. It was funny, if he was being honest. 

“Look at all the stuff we found!” Wind said, coming back into the clearing with Hyrule next to him. He was soaking wet. “There was a pile of sticks clogging the river, so I got to go in and get ‘em!”

“He is remarkably well suited to his sea lion form.” Hyrule said. 

“Glad you could find some wood.” Legend told them, giving himself a mental high-five when Hyrule smiled at him. “Where’s Sky?”

“He said he was going to look for some wood in the highest branches.”

“Well, Wild is already doing that. I’ll bet he fell asleep somewhere.” Legend said. Wind shrugged. 

“We should go look for him.” Hyrule said quietly. “Just to make sure he isn’t hurt.”

“Alright, sure. Twilight! Wild! We’re going to look for Sky.” 

“Okay!” Twilight didn’t tear his eyes away from Wild, who had climbed even further up in the tree and was dropping branches down to the ground. Twilight had to continuously dodge around them. 

Legend had been right. He had, of course, known he’d be right. Sky was asleep, leaning against a tree. His massive red wings were outstretched, so he was extremely easy to spot from far away. It probably wasn’t the best choice from a stealth standpoint. 

“Which one of us is going to wake him up?” Wind said. “It needs to at least look like he did work, or Time will be disappointed.”   
“I hate it when adults are disappointed.” Hyrule whispered to Legend, who nodded. 

“I’ll do it.” Hyrule volunteered. “And no, Legend, I don’t need the horn.” Legend put away the Conch Horn. Hyrule gently poked Sky in the cheek, but as expected, got no reaction. He put his hands on his hips for a moment, thinking. He turned so he was facing away from Sky, and gave his pink butterfly wings a powerful flap. The gust of wind was apparently enough to rouse Sky, who woke up quite suddenly. 

“Oh. You.” He said upon seeing Legend, Hyrule, and Wind. “What is it?”

“We need to get some wood so it looks like you did work.” Wind said.  _ That’s one way of putting it.  _ Legend thought. Sky yawned and stood up, stretching his wings. 

“Alright. I suppose a little exercise would be good for me.” Sky flew up into the treetops, no doubt going to look for wood—or maybe find another place to sleep. 

“Hyrule, you should go make sure he does what he’s supposed to.” Legend said. Hyrule ran a hand through his poofy hair and nodded. 

“Alright.” He took to the skies and disappeared through the leafy branches. 

“We should go make sure Wild and Twilight are okay.” Wind said. Legend followed him back to the large tree, where Twilight was nervously biting his lip so hard that Legend feared he would break the skin. Wild had clearly not come down from the tree, though the pile of sticks on the ground gave hints to how much work he’d been doing. 

“He’s going to break something if he falls.” Legend commented.

“I know.” Twilight said worriedly. “But I don’t want to climb up there and then fall myself.” 

“I already told you, Twi!” Wild shouted. “It’s fine!” As he inched out further along a branch, it cracked. Wild leapt back, clinging to the tree, as the branch fell to the forest floor. 

“Come down! Or I’m going up there myself!” Twilight bluffed. Wild rolled his eyes,  _ jumping _ from the tree. At the last moment, he activated his red forcefield and saved his bones from being shattered into a million little pieces. 

“I told you it was fine.” Wild said, picking a leaf out of his hair. 

“You’re an idiot. You could’ve  _ died _ .” Twilight snapped.

“Yeah, but I didn’t.” Wild pointed out. 

“That’s not the point.” Twilight growled. He picked up the massive pile of sticks like it weighed next to nothing and stormed away. Wild looked at Legend.

“But I’m fine.” He said, confused. “Why is he so angry?” 

“You really could’ve been hurt.” Legend said. “I don’t think he’s angry so much as he’s scared for you.”

“I didn’t want to make him worry.” Wild muttered. 

“You should apologize later.” Wind said. “If Twilight doesn’t apologize for snapping at you first.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Well, we should get this wood back to the barn so it can be cut.” Legend said, grabbing some loose sticks that Twilight hadn’t gotten. Sky and Hyrule came through a break in the trees, with a formidable collection of sticks between the two of them. 

“Where’s the beast?” Sky asked, clearly talking about Twilight. 

“He went to give his wood to Time. I was just saying we should go back.” Legend told him. Sky nodded. 

“Figures, he would leave early.”

“It’s not his fault.” Wild said. “I freaked him out.” 

Sky shrugged. “Regardless, we should go back.”

“We already were.” Legend ducked under Hyrule’s hand trying to cuff his ear. 

“I see you’ve gotten quite a lot of wood.” Time said approvingly as Legend, Sky, Wind, and Hyrule returned with their stash. Wild was trailing a few feet behind. “That, plus what Twilight came back with, should be enough for a wall or two.”

“Only that?!” Legend exclaimed. “How much wood do we need for the whole thing?!”   
“Twice that.” Time said. Legend groaned, and the four boys began unloading their wood piles. Wild shuffled over to Twilight, who was leaning against the barn wall and absently tracing his fingers over the marks on his arms. 

“I’m sorry.” The earth deity said. “I wasn’t being careful.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Twilight said. “I was being overprotective. You knew what you were doing.”

“But I still made you upset. I… didn’t like how that felt.”   
“Really, it’s okay.” Twilight assured him. “Like I said, I was worrying too much.” 

“Why don’t both of you accept each other’s apologies so we can get on with our lives?” Legend said, blowing a stream of fire from his mouth with a bored expression. Twilight scowled at him, but he nodded towards Wild. 

“Fine. It really wasn’t your fault, though.” He said. 

“Boys! I would like some help cutting the wood.” Time said. “Wind, Hyrule, you two don’t have to help. Twilight, Sky, Wild, Legend, you four do.” Twilight and Wild nodded, whilst Legend and Sky groaned. Twilight seemed unnaturally excited about cutting wood.

“Alright, try to split these in half so we get twice the amount of wood and so they have a flat side. You can use these, take your pick.” Time said, pointing to four axes leaning against the barn door. 

“Why do you have so many?” Wild asked. Time shrugged. 

“Never hurts to prepare.” He said. 

“That’s a good point.” Wild grabbed the shiniest, newest looking axe. Twilight grabbed a rugged one with a carving of a moon on the handle, Legend’s had a rose-gold colored blade, and Sky’s axehead was etched with designs. The four of them began working on chopping the wood, with Wind and Hyrule handing them new pieces. Though all four of them were strong, Twilight and Wild were the most suited to the work—particularly Twilight, who had probably done a lot of chopping wood when he’d lived in Ordon. Legend was dangerously close to giving up almost the entire time, until he decided to put on his Power Gloves and he and Twilight got into a chopping competition that Wild and Sky judged. 

Legend won, just barely. 

“You put up quite the fight.” Legend said, wiping his forehead.

“Thanks. Does the winner get a prize, or…”

“The winner gets one now!” Sky said, smiling brightly as he gave Legend a small amber rock in a swirl pattern. Legend snatched it and stared at it for a moment before shoving it in a pocket. 

“This wood isn’t going to chop itself.” Time reminded them. He seemed to be having a lot of fun ordering the boys around. Legend rolled his eyes, but he resumed cutting the wood. They were almost done cutting everything, as he and Twilight had churned through more than half in their little competition.    
“It’s getting a little late, Time.” Sky said with a poorly stifled yawn. “Maybe we can do more in the morning?” He sounded hopeful. Time glanced up at the steadily darkening sky, the sun setting behind the trees. 

“I suppose you need to be well rested in order to work.” He conceded. “Alright, run inside a moment and grab something to eat before you go to bed.” The boys grinned, racing towards the house. Malon would have her hands full when they got there. Time made sure the axes were put back in their places before he went inside. 


	7. Evil Signature

Legend woke up with a start in the middle of the night as a clattering sound reached his ears. He looked around, and no one else seemed to be awake—miraculously. Slowly so as to not wake Hyrule, who was sleeping right next to him, Legend stood up and climbed down the ladder, wincing as a rung creaked. He crept across the barn floor, to where he’d head the clattering. A figure tiptoed past the barn door, and Legend sprinted at them, his arms wrapping around a small boy and shoving him to the ground. 

“Wha—a kid?” He asked incredulously. The boy glared up at him with shockingly blue eyes. 

“I’m sixteen!”

“But you—”

“I’m a brownie, nitwit. We’re naturally smaller than people.”

“Okay, what were you doing out here?”

“I was going to finish chopping the wood! There was still some left, and I figured I’d try to be helpful!” 

“Well, you did not go about that particularly well.” Legend pointed out. “Tell you what. You are coming inside with me, and you are going to stay in that loft, and I will talk to Time in the morning?”

“Who’s Time?” It may have been a trick of the light, but it seemed as if the boy’s eyes were purple instead of blue. 

“The person who owns the farm. What’s your name?”

“Four.”

“Great. I’m Legend. Now get over here.” Even though Four struggled, he, as he had said, was small. And Legend hadn’t taken off his Power Gloves yet, so it was not much of a battle to get Four up the ladder. Hyrule was awake, probably cold from Legend leaving. 

“W-Who’s this?” He stammered. 

“Says his name is Four. We’re going to ask Time about him tomorrow.” 

“Okay. How are we going to get him to stay long enough?” Legend held up a rope, the same one he’d been using to play tug of war with Twilight yesterday. Four’s eyes flashed green and red, unbeknownst to Legend. 

“Ah.”

The following morning, Twilight was the first person awake, opening his eyes and stretching. He saw Four, tied up and being restrained by Legend, who had a ridiculously strong grip, even in sleep. Twilight snarled, backing up until he bumped into the barn wall. The snarl woke Wild, who let out an exclamation when he noticed Four. The exclamation woke the remaining heroes, save for Sky, who was woken by Legend with his Conch Horn. 

“Legend. Explain.  _ Now _ .” Twilight said, a growl building in his throat. 

“My name is Four.” Four said with a defiant blue-eyed glare at Legend. “I’m a brownie. I was trying to help you guys by chopping the wood last night, but I knocked over the axes and Legend heard me. Who are you?”

“That’s Twilight!” Wind interrupted. “I’m Wind, and that is Wild, Hyrule, and Sky!” 

“Someone had better go wake up Time.” Sky said. 

“I’m not going to do it.” Wind said adamantly. “Someone else can.” 

“What is going on here?” Time demanded, climbing the ladder. 

“Hello sir. I’m Four.”

“Why are you in my barn?” Four proceeded to explain the situation to Time, who listened with a tired expression. 

“I’m still confused about one thing.” Wild said. “If you’d wanted to help us with the wood, why didn’t you show yourself earlier?”

“I work better in shadow.” Four said. His eyes turned red, but it wasn’t a menacing, bloody red. It was more like an… excited red. “And I thought it would be nice if you guys got to wake up and part of your job was done!”

“I would’ve enjoyed that.” Sky admitted. Four nodded as if he’d just proven a point. 

“Do you want anything?” Time said. 

“No! I literally just wanted to do you guys a favor!”

“Do you live in the forest?” Time asked, hoping Four said no. If a brownie was living in his forest and he’d never noticed, despite all his patrols, there was a problem. 

“I don’t live anywhere.” Four told him. 

“Well, the loft has room!” Wind exclaimed. “You can stay here! Right?” He looked at Time, who sighed and wished he didn’t have such a soft spot for these boys. 

“Yes, he can stay. But you have to help with the work.” Time said to Four. 

“I was already going to do that.” Four muttered. At Time’s glare, he spoke again: “I accept your offer, sir.”    
“Good. Now we need to gather more wood today. I will be here, finishing cutting and starting to redo the siding. If anything happens, come back here  _ immediately. _ ”

“Sure thing.” Wild said with a nod. They all climbed down the ladder, snatching various pieces of leftover food from the night before as they went towards the forest. Time shoved down the nervousness brewing in his stomach. He knew the boys were capable, and there wasn’t going to be anything bad in the forest. 

The forest seemed darker than it usually did to Hyrule. It was a bit earlier in the day, so the sun wasn’t completely in the sky, but Hyrule wasn’t sure that was why. He could sense a strange magic that he hadn’t sensed in a while, and it was making him nervous. Hyrule checked over each of his friend’s magical signatures, just to make sure it wasn’t them. 

Wind’s signature was difficult. It seemed, every time Hyrule tried to get a good read on it, it flew out of his grasp. What he had learned was that it was finicky and rather unpredictable. He supposed it was fitting for a boy named Wind. 

Legend’s magical signature was one he knew well. It was mostly the signature of a dragon, powerful enough to level a building but hidden deep down, but there was an overlying, darker magic on top of the dragon’s magic: a result of a curse Legend preferred no one to know about, besides Hyrule of course. 

Sky’s magic was almost painful to interact with. The angel was brimming with light magic, in such a way that it felt as if Hyrule was being burned every time he tried to sense it. The light magic seemed ancient, as if Sky was thousands of years old. 

Four’s magic was… complicated. It seemed as if there were five different signatures, all blended into one, each with its own temperament. Hyrule had come to associate the different magics with colors, though he knew that didn’t make much sense. 

Wild had a motley of different signatures, similar to Four. Each seemed to give the deity a certain ability, like the forcefield he had used earlier. Wild’s earth magic was the main force Hyrule was able to detect. It was quite powerful, and luckily, well controlled. 

The signature Twilight had made Hyrule uneasy, though he knew that was to be expected. It was dark, and fractured, almost sharp. The shapeshifting magic felt similar to Legend’s curse, though it had a feeling of harsh sorrow associated with it. It was uncomfortable to sense, though not painful like Sky’s. 

Time was unique. The fairy magic in him was bright, chaotic, and not particularly powerful. It constantly seemed to be moving, and wanting to do something. The other side of his magic intimidated Hyrule, to say the least. It was slower moving, but it was extremely powerful and seemed to be always at the surface. There was a feeling of… evil, almost, that came with Time’s more powerful magic. 

But this new signature, it was entirely evil. Hyrule couldn’t figure out where the evil was coming from, so he kept his fire magic on the tip of his fingers at all times. 

“Is everything alright?” Legend whispered to him, pink scales sparkling as the sun glanced off them. 

“I can sense something bad in the forest.” Hyrule replied. “I don’t like it.” 

“We should tell the others. Make sure they’re aware.” 

Hyrule nodded. “I agree. We—” He was cut off, as a massive beast resembling a cross between pig and man crashed through the trees.

“Moblin!” Wild exclaimed, lightning magic crackling. The Moblin roared, making Hyrule want to cover his ears. Beside him, Legend cursed and pulled his Ice Rod from his bag, freezing one of the Moblin’s feet to the ground. Wind drew his knife, and Sky summoned a purple-hilted and glimmering blade into his hands. Four held a small, stocky blade, but he didn’t look like he wanted to have to use it. Twilight, eyes wide as if he’d never seen a Moblin before, stumbled back. Wild shot a massive bolt of lightning, before rolling under the Moblin’s fist and ripping off a tree branch to use as his weapon. Most people would’ve scoffed, but Hyrule remembered Wild beating up seven people with a broom. 

Legend used a combination of his Ice Rod and his fire breath to distract the Moblin, while Hyrule waited for someone to get injured so he could heal them. He was considering using his Fire or Thunder magic, but he didn’t want to get drained before someone needed healing. Sky engaged the Moblin in a sword fight, matching every one of the monster’s ridiculously powerful strokes with a graceful parry or jab. Twilight took advantage of the Moblin’s distracted state and crept behind it. The Moblin threw its sword in rage, using its hands to try and defeat Sky. It seemed as if the angel was holding his own, but Hyrule could tell he was tiring. The flying sword caught Wild on the arm, slicing a deep gash. Twilight snarled, forgoing his ability to turn into a wolf and leaping onto the Moblin’s back, sinking his teeth into its shoulder. The Moblin roared again, this time in pain, and tried to raise a hand to throw Twilight off, but the half-demon was in such a position that the Moblin couldn’t reach him. Hyrule ran to Wild, hands glowing so brightly that he had to look away as he healed the gash. 

“You might want to think about killing it!” Legend shouted, shooting a ball of ice at the Moblin’s fist and knocking it away from Sky’s head. 

“I’m trying!” Sky said desperately. With a shout, he drove his sword into the Moblin’s chest. The beast’s red eyes went wide, before they dimmed and it collapsed. Dead. 

Sky pulled his blade from it as Legend helped Hyrule to stand, as the fairy was drained from his rapid and hectic healing of Wild’s arm. Twilight climbed off the Moblin and proceeded to empty his lunch into a bush. 

“Are you alright?” Wild asked, rolling his shoulder. 

“I will be.” Twilight said with a hand held to his forehead. “I forgot how poisonous Moblin blood is.”

“Poison?” Sky exclaimed. 

“I’ll just sleep it off.” Twilight assured him. He groaned. “In a second.” He dry heaved into the same unlucky bush, and Sky looked away before he triggered his own gag reflex. 

“We need to go back and let Time know what happened.” Four said. He hadn’t had to use his Four Sword, thankfully. That would be too complicated to explain. 

“I agree.” Legend replied, supporting Hyrule. “The wood can wait.”

Needless to say, Time was extremely concerned when the seven boys stumbled back to the farm.   
“Moblin.” Wild said in a flat voice. 

“Are you all okay?” Time asked.

“Mostly.” Sky said. Time raised his eyebrows. 

“I’m just dizzy from using magic.” Hyrule explained. “Twilight bit the Moblin, and he said Moblin blood is poisonous.”

“I’ll be okay, Time.” Twilight said. “It’s not that bad, I just need to sleep—hold on.” He ran behind the barn and the sounds that came after him left nothing to the imagination. 

“Yeah, Moblin blood just makes you sick.” Legend said. “At worst, he’ll feel like he has the stomach flu for a few days.”

“How would you know?” Time asked. Legend winced inwardly. 

“Teeth make a pretty good weapon if you don’t have anything else.” Wind supplied, and Legend mentally thanked him. Time nodded slowly. 

“Right.” It was clear he did not believe Wind in the slightest, but he was willing to let it slide for the sake of Legend’s secrets. 

“I’m going to go to bed.” Twilight announced, returning. His face was pale and his hands shook ever so slightly. “Yes, I realize it’s still technically the afternoon, but I am going to bed.”

“Goodnight, then.” Time said. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Sure thing.” Twilight said, going inside the barn. Wild followed just to make sure the half-demon made it up the ladder without slipping or passing out. 

“So, does anyone want to tell me anything else before I patrol?” Time said curtly. The boys shook their heads. 

“Go right ahead.” Legend gestured towards the forest. “I’m certainly not going there anytime soon.” 

“Finish chopping the wood, then.” Time said. He ignored Legend’s protests as he retrieved his sword from inside the house and walked off into the forest. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so school has started for me. Updates might come a bit slower but I will try to do at least one or two a week :/
> 
> Sorry for any inconvenience!


	8. Hidden Temple

Sky woke up in the middle of the night because he heard whimpering. He immediately thought it was just in his imagination and was about to go to sleep when a yelp echoed through the barn. Sky rubbed the last of sleep from his eyes and stood, being conscious about his wings as he crept over the sleeping bodies of his friends. The source of the whimpering and single yelp, surprisingly, turned out to be Twilight, caught in the clutches of an apparently vicious nightmare. Twilight was shivering, even though the night air was warm and stuffy. Sky remembered Legend mentioning something about a fever, and nervously looked around. He didn’t have much experience with sickness. 

He did, however, have a lot of experience with nightmares. 

Sky knelt beside Twilight, freezing for a moment as Wild rolled over and mumbled something. Unsure of exactly what to do, Sky reached out a hand and shook Twilight’s shoulder, but that didn’t accomplish anything. Twilight yelped again and recoiled away from the touch, and Sky realized with a quiet curse that he couldn’t touch Twilight to wake him.  _ Guess we’re resorting to talking, then.  _ He thought. 

“Twilight.” He tried. “Twilight, come on. Wake up. Whatever you’re dreaming, it’s not real.” Twilight didn’t give a response beyond a low whine and a toss of his head. Sky noticed Twilight’s oak brown hair was plastered to his face with sweat despite his shivering. “Twilight!” He tried again, louder this time. “Wake up! You’re having a nightmare!” Sky snapped his fingers in front of Twilight’s face, and the half-demon’s blue eyes snapped open. Twilight sat up sharply, arms wrapped around himself. 

“Wh—” Twilight looked at Sky, though his eyes were glazed with fever. He didn’t seem to recognize Sky. 

“Hey, calm down.” Sky said, holding out his hands. Twilight bared his teeth and growled. “Twilight, it’s me. Sky.” 

“I thought you hated me.” Twilight growled, voice hoarse. 

“No one deserves to suffer through a nightmare alone. Do you want to talk about it?” Sky said gently. Twilight swallowed and shook his head. 

“You don’t need to hear it. It’s not your problem.”

“Twi, I will listen if you need to talk about it. I promise.” Twilight looked down at his hands and picked at his fingernails for a moment. 

“I…” He started quietly, “I was running through a forest. In my wolf form. And… and I got attacked. By one of those Moblin things. And I was dying, and Midna walked right up to me,” Twilight’s voice went down in volume until it was a mere whisper, and Sky had to lean in to hear what he said next. “And she ignored me. She walked right through me like I wasn’t even there.” 

“That’s… awful.” Sky said, and he really meant it. He purposely did not mention that he had no idea who Midna was. “I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t deserve your pity. I’m a monster, like you said.”

“I was wrong.” Sky moved to lay a hand on Twilight’s arm and stopped as the half-demon flinched away from him. “I was very wrong.”

“...Thanks.” Twilight said, looking away and rubbing the back of his neck. “You can go back to sleep now. I don’t want to keep you up any longer than I have to.” 

“Alright.” Sky climbed back over the maze of sleeping Hylians and leaned against the wall as Twilight laid down to go to sleep. Just to be careful, Sky made himself stay awake until Twilight’s breathing evened out and he was sure the half-demon was truly asleep. 

Legend, as he’d expected, was the first person to wake up. He yawned, walking down the ladder and outside to get a breath of fresh air. 

_ “Hello?!”  _ A voice screamed into Legend’s head.  _ “Please, can anyone hear me?!” _ Legend fell back against the side of the barn, clasping a hand to his head. 

“I can hear you alright.” He muttered. 

_ “I don’t have much time! I need you to rescue me!”  _

“Who are you?” Legend did not get a clear response, only a mental image of a boy, chained by his hands between two pillars in a massive temple. The boy’s blonde hair was dull and thin, and there was what appeared to be bloodstains on his hands and across his face. His green tunic was torn in places, but his royal blue scarf looked brand new. 

_ “Please… I’m in the forest…” _ The voice faded from Legend’s head, leaving the half-dragon completely stunned. 

__ “Oh no.” Legend said. “Oh come on, I thought I was done with all my weird dreams and crap!” The only memory Legend even had, of his ‘weird dreams and crap’, was of an island with a beautiful red haired girl. 

That memory was not one he liked. 

Ever since he was young, Legend had been unusually prone to strange dreams. He had begun to notice that many visions and dreams he had were real. Very real, in fact. Koholint was an exception. A painful exception. 

“Are you okay?” Wild asked, coming around the side of the barn. “You sounded angry.”

“It’s complicated.” Legend said. 

“Tell me what just happened.” Wild rephrased, and his tone did not leave room for argument. 

“I just had some random person scream at me, in my head, and tell me to come save them. If you think I’m crazy, go right ahead.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. The voice of a princess spoke in my head for years.” Wild said, completely serious. “Where is the person?”

“He’s in a temple, in the forest. I don’t know where other than that.” 

“We should wake everyone up and talk to Time about it. He can give us advice.” Wild suggested. Legend rubbed his temples for a moment and pushed away the remnants of his headache. 

“Alright.” He said, albeit reluctantly. He walked back into the barn and pulled out his Conch Horn, which he was coming to realize was the quickest way to get everyone up and ready for the day. Legend gave it three quick blows and waited as the boys climbed down the ladder. He wondered if Time would insist on adopting the boy with the scarf once they found him. 

Legend was pleased to see that Hyrule seemed much perkier than he had last night, after nearly passing out from healing Wild. Twilight, while still pale, did not look sick or shaky anymore.  _ Good. I have a feeling everyone is going to need to be in tip-top shape.  _

“It’s so early…” Sky said, yawning and stretching his wings. 

“Not really.” Wild said. “I’ve gotten up way earlier than this.” Sky rolled his eyes. 

“So, why did you wake us up?” Four asked. 

“We need to get Time and then I’ll tell you.” Legend said. 

“On it.” Twilight said, shifting into his wolf form and running towards the house. A couple of minutes later, Twilight returned with Time hot on his heels—Malon had been awakened too, but she was inside preparing breakfast. 

“What is it?” Time said. Legend paused, trying to figure out how to put what he’d seen into words. 

“A boy spoke to me and told me to come save him. In my head.” He winced as he realized that was not how it was supposed to sound. 

“Has this happened before? Telepathic occurrences?” Time said. Legend nodded. “I have had similar things happen.”   
“That’s almost exactly what I told him.” Wild said. 

“Interesting. Do you know where this boy is?”   
“He said he was in the forest, in a temple.” Time’s eye widened, almost imperceptibly. 

“I believe I’ve seen this temple before. I never wanted to see what was inside, but it looks as if that is what we are going to do. And I’m afraid I don’t remember where it is, either.”

“Boys!” Malon shouted from the doorway. “Come inside, breakfast is ready!”    
“Yes, I’m starving!” Twilight muttered. He didn’t shift into his wolf form as all of them ran, and yet he still beat them to the house (Legend and Wild were close seconds). 

“You look like you’re on a mission.” Malon commented as the boys ate their meal.    
“We are going to investigate the forest.” Time explained. “We believe there is something hidden there that could be useful.”

“You’d better be careful.” Malon shook a wooden spoon at him, and Time noticed her hand was trembling. 

“Boys, why don’t you finish your breakfast outside.” Time said. Legend made a discontent noise, but he didn’t actively protest as they filed out of the house. Time walked over to Malon and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m going to be fine.” He whispered. 

“I know, but I can’t help but worry.” Malon said. She angrily wiped a tear from her face, but the purple hyacinth flowers appearing around her gave away how upset she was. “I don’t want to lose you. It’s almost happened more than enough times.”

“I didn’t want any of those things to happen either.” Time said. Malon sniffled. “Look, I won’t make any promises I can’t keep, but I will try  _ so hard _ to stay alive. For you.” 

“You’d better, fairy boy.” Malon said, poking his cheek and making a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. 

“I will.” Time kissed her, grabbed his sword from beside the door, and left. Malon sighed shakily and wiped at her face with her apron, scolding herself for breaking down. 

“He’s going to be fine, you silly girl.” She muttered to herself. “You have chores to do, get it together.” Malon grabbed a cookie she’d made the previous day, choosing to eat that instead of a typical breakfast. She made sure the boys had left before she went outside. As she went into the barn, Epona whinnied at her. Epona’s foal was sleeping in a nest of hay beside the mare. “I’m okay, girl, really.” Malon said with a smile that directly contradicted her statement. Epona blew a stream of air from her nose and nuzzled Malon’s cheek, and the forest nymph chuckled. She rubbed Epona’s muzzle and blew a kiss to the foal, then returned to her chores with Epona’s breathing and the swish of her broom as her companions. 

“Legend, do you know where this temple is?” Time asked. “Besides that it’s in the forest.”

“All I saw was trees.” Legend snapped. “Hyrule, have you sensed anything?”

“Sensed?” Wind asked. 

“I can sense powerful magic.” Hyrule explained. “And Legend, I’ve been trying but I haven’t noticed anything yet.”

“I can smell magic,” Twilight said, “but I’m afraid I have to agree with Hyrule. Nothing weird has come up.” 

“What did you say the temple looked like?” Wild said, not looking up from kicking a rock as they walked.

“The kid was chained between two pillars. The whole thing was made out of this weird purplish rock, and there were blue and red roses everywhere. That’s all I know.” Legend said. This was close to the fifth time he’d had to explain this, so he was rightfully annoyed at them. 

“Uh… guys?” Sky called, from where he was soaring above the treetops. “Keep going forward!” This sparked the boys to break into a run, until they got to where Sky was waiting for them. “Legend, does this look right?” Sky pointed at a slab of purple-blue stone beneath a pile of leaves.

“That’s it. But it’s buried.”

“I can fix that.” Wild said. “Can anyone lend me magic?” Both Hyrule and Time raised their hands, then linked arms with Wild. Wild closed his eyes in concentration, hands outstretched. The very ground beneath them began to shake as the temple was raised from the ground. Wild stumbled more than a few times, but Hyrule and Time kept him standing and conscious. 

There was a resounding  _ boom _ , and the temple was fully risen up. Time, Hyrule, and Wild fell to their knees. 

“Are you okay?” Twilight fretted. Time waved a hand at him. 

“We’re fine. That took a lot of energy.” 

“That was awesome!” Four said, eyes practically glowing. “How did you do it?”   
“I’m an earth deity.” Wild said. “It’s something I can do, but I haven’t done anything of that scale in a very long time.” 

“Wow.” Wind and Four said under their breaths. 

“Well, let’s go in.” Sky announced, walking up to the massive stone doors and pushing on them. The doors barely moved an inch. “A little help?” The others nodded and made various noises of assent as they helped Sky push the doors open with a very loud and earpiercing  _ screech _ . The interior of the temple looked much more pristine than its vine and dirt covered exterior. Statues lined the walls, as did paintings. The boy was chained in the middle of the room, and he didn’t lift his head as they entered. 

“Why are all these statues and paintings of him?” Wild asked, pointing at the boy. 

“Because she’s obsessed with me.” The boy said in a low and hoarse voice. Legend, Twilight, and Hyrule started to undo the handcuffs around the boy’s wrists. Once they were unlocked, the boy slumped forward and Twilight caught him. Hyrule’s hands began to glow as he readied his healing powers. “I’m not hurt.” The boy said.

“What’s your name?” Time said in a voice much more intimidating than he meant it to be. “Who are you?” 

“My name is Warriors. I used to be a deity of war, and yes I know that makes my name unfortunate, until I gave up my immortality about twenty years ago.” 

“How long have you been trapped in here?”   
“At least twenty years.”

“What’s the last thing you know happened?” At this, Warriors’ eyes widened. 

“The War!” He said, trying to struggle out of Twilight’s grip (to no avail). “I have to get back to the War, Cia could still be out there—”

“Did you say Cia?” Four interrupted. “That would be the Great War of Hyrule. We won that war over a hundred years ago.” 

“A hundred years?” Warriors was shocked. It had only felt like twenty years at most since he’d been imprisoned here by Cia. A hundred years, there was no way. 

“What did you do in the war?” Wild asked. 

“I was a Captain, alongside Princess Artemis, Impa, and Sheik.”

“Princess Artemis is still alive, as are Impa and Sheik.” Time said. 

“Really?”   
“Yes. She was granted the powers of a Great Fairy at the end of the Great War of Hyrule, as a reward for all she had done. I assume you would’ve gotten the same treatment, had you not been captured. Impa and Sheik are Sheikah Monks, as I’m sure you knew. They have ridiculously long lifespans.” 

“Wait. Did you lead the charge against Cia in the Temple of Souls?” Wind said, eyes lighting up. 

“Yes, why?”   
“That was the turning point in the War! We never would’ve won if we hadn’t beaten her there!”

“Oh. That’s good to know, I suppose.”   
“How did you end up here?” Wild said. 

“Cia captured me. You’re standing in the Temple of Souls.” As they looked around, it became obvious that the Temple of Souls was indeed where they were standing. History hadn’t taught much about specifics of the War, and not all of them had gotten a true education—in fact, Sky, Wild, and Warriors were the only ones—but they’d all heard tales of a valiant knight bringing the purple temple to its knees. 

“And now I want to get out of it.” Legend deadpanned. “Can you walk, Scarf Boy?”

“I can try. Wait, what are all of your names?”   
“I’m Twilight, and this is Time, Wind, Wild, Legend, Hyrule, Four, and Sky.” Twilight said. Each boy waved or gave some other sign of ‘hello’ when Twilight said their name. Warriors nodded slowly, going over the names in his head. 

“Alright, got it. Twilight, could you help me?” Warriors hated the way those words sounded in his mouth. Twilight nodded, though he seemed surprised that anyone would want help from him. They exited the temple, and Warriors looked around, trying to take in every detail of the once-magnificent Temple of Souls. “Wait, can you grab those?” He pointed at a sword and shield leaning against a pillar. 

“I got them.” Four said, holding up the shield. “Okay, um, Wind? Could you grab the sword? It’s way too big for me to carry.”

“Sure thing!”

The now nine boys walked back through the forest, pausing a few times to let Warriors look at a particularly interesting tree or flower (after all, it had been hundreds of years since he’d seen such things). Once they returned to the farm, Time saw Malon’s silhouette in the window, backlit by candles. 

“Where are we?” Warriors said. 

“This is my ranch.” Time replied. “You can—”

“Watch him say Warriors can stay.” Legend whispered to Wind and Hyrule. 

“—stay here if you want.” Time finished. 

“Knew it.” Hyrule chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“Well, I don’t have another place to stay.” Warriors said to himself. “Alright, sure. I accept your offer.”

“And who is this?” Malon asked, walking up to them. There was a smudge of flour on her cheek and Time resisted the urge to wipe it away. 

“This is Warriors.” Time said. “I said he could stay here, in the barn.”

“Of course you did.” Malon said with a hint of a teasing smile. “We are not adopting anymore boys, I hope you realize that.”

“Whatever you say, my lady.” Time said with a bow, and Malon blushed and hit him with the wooden spoon. 

“Oh, stop that. Boys, I’m almost done with supper if you’d like to come inside.”

“This is quite good.” Warriors said, politely swallowing before he spoke. “You’re a good cook.”   
“Thank you. If you choose to stay with us for a while, maybe I’ll make something even better.” Malon said. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, how long do you think you’ll stay?”   
“A week, at most.” Warriors said honestly. “I should go speak with Princess Artemis.”

“And the other Princesses, of course.” Time prompted. 

“Others?”   
“Princesses Flora, Dusk, and Sun.”

“Sun!” Sky exclaimed. “Oh, she’s probably worried sick about me! I’ll come with you.”

“I should, too.” Wild said. “Flora… doesn’t like it when I disappear for very long.”

“Well, I, for one, will stay right here.” Twilight crossed his arms. “I do not need to see Princess Dusk.”

“Warriors, how did you not know about the Royal Circle?” Malon said. 

“It’s complicated.” Warriors said, wringing his hands. “I was trapped in the forest for a hundred years.”   
“A hundred years! Then you must’ve fought in the Great War of Hyrule, am I correct?”

“I was a Captain.” Warriors admitted. “But that’s not important now, since the War has been done for a hundred or more years. I can imagine Artemis, Impa, and Sheik would like to see me again.”

“Well, why don’t you all go to the Castle.” Malon offered. “I can take care of the ranch for a while.”   
“That doesn’t seem safe.” Time said. “Something might attack you.”

“I can defend myself.” Malon reminded him. “And I can always run off on Epona if I need to.”

“And I’m not going.” Twilight said. “So we will be able to protect each other.” 

“Why aren’t you coming?” Wind asked, cocking his head. 

“I don’t want to dig up old memories.” Twilight said enigmatically. 

“You should come.” Time prompted. “If the rest of us are, there is no real reason why you shouldn’t.”

“He just said why, Old Man.” Legend said. “Leave it be.”

“Well, alright.” Time said. 

“Be safe.” Sky said, pointing at the two of them. Malon nodded with a smile, and Twilight blinked in shock. He vaguely remembered his nightmare from the previous night, but Sky evidently remembered more than he did. 

As the boys left, Malon turned and hit Twilight on the head with her spoon. 

“Hey, what was that for?”

“You are going with them.” Malon said simply. “You probably didn’t notice, but some of them were disappointed that you weren’t going.” 

“That’s impossible. They don’t care about—”

“You are hopelessly clueless.” Malon shook her head. “Just go, Wolfie.” 

“Wolfie?” Twilight raised his eyebrows at the nickname, but Malon shook her spoon at him and tapped his nose. 

“Go!”

“Alright, alright, I’m going.” Twilight chuckled as he walked outside, jogging slightly to catch up. 

“Change your mind?” Time asked, smiling. 

“I was… persuaded.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare for meeting the princesses because they’re awesome
> 
> Also, since my birthday is coming up—September 1—and I might get Skyward Sword prepare for some Sky-centric fics


	9. Lorule Province

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hello yes I know it’s been like weeks please forgive me school sucks

Time smiled to himself as the boys walked towards Hyrule Castle, which was about three days away. His newfound family seemed to be getting along: Wind was riding on Warrior’s shoulders and talking with Four, Legend was interrupting a conversation between Wild and Hyrule, and surprisingly, Sky and Twilight were talking. Time wondered what had occured between the two of them to cause them to be friends so quickly, but he wasn’t going to complain. 

The path they were on was mostly uninhabited, but the few travelers they passed gave them a variety of looks, ranging from scared, to amazed, to disgusted. The people of Kakariko were pretty used to seeing Time, but evidently not many other people were. Legend had decided that the most direct way to the Castle was through a rather dilapidated region called Lorule Province, and, seeing as no one else had Legend’s sense of direction, they agreed with him. 

Lorule Province was not a place Time decided he’d ever want to be again, and that wasn’t even counting its resemblance to Termina. It was spooky, and every citizen they passed was wearing strange masks of beasts, which only served to remind Time more of Termina and put him more on edge. Twilight seemed almost frightened of a few of the masks, ones that looked more like stone shields than animal’s faces. Sky didn’t seem worried in the slightest, but part of that might be that every Lorulean they passed glanced fearfully at Sky and his massive wings. 

“Time, do you know where we’re going to stay? It’s getting dark.” Wind said atop Warriors’ shoulders as the two came up to Time. 

“I don’t, but I assume Legend does. I would ask him.” Time said. Wind nodded. 

“Hey, do you know where we’re staying?” Warriors asked Legend, who smirked at him. 

“What? Are your old legs getting sore?”

“Hey, I’m technically twenty-three!”

“Older than me.” Legend quipped. “And yes, I do know where we’re staying. And no, I’m not going to tell you.” Warriors rolled his eyes. 

“Have it your way, Dragon Boy.” 

“Scarf Boy.” Legend retorted. He purposefully re-interrupted Wild and Hyrule’s conversation, and Warriors scoffed at him before listening to Wind catch him up on how things had changed while he’d been in the Temple of Souls. It didn’t sound that different, but he was still surprised what had changed. For example, Lorule Province had not been around. Although some of the masks reminded him of a few people he’d fought alongside; namely Ravio and Young Link. 

“So, when you fought, did you really fight in the Forsaken Fortress?” Wind asked.

“I did.” Warriors confirmed. 

“Really? I had to sneak in there!”

“Why?” Warriors was alarmed. “And how?”   
“My sister got kidnapped by the Helmaroc King. I snuck in and saved her.” Wind explained. 

“I fought the Helmaroc King.” Warriors said, surprised. 

“Really?” Wind said. Warriors nodded. “No way! That’s awesome!” 

“Makes me wonder if I encountered anything else you guys have.” Warriors mused. 

“It’s possible. We should check sometime.” 

“I agree.” Warriors looked around at the Province. They seemed to be the only people in the area who weren’t wearing masks, which drew a lot more strange looks than Warriors would’ve preferred. 

“I think we’re almost to the place.” Legend said, gesturing up the path. A cottage was visible up ahead, with a large sign in the shape of a purple rabbit on the roof. “Yup, that’s definitely him.” 

“Who lives there?” Four asked. 

“A friend of mine. Name’s Ravio.” 

“Is he the one who’s friends with the telepath?” Hyrule said, cocking his head. 

“Yep.”

“You know a telepath?” Wind said. Legend nodded. “That’s awesome!”

“She’s… not that great.” Legend grimaced as he thought of the purple-haired, red-eyed leader of Lorule Province who had tricked him into nearly destroying the Province itself. “Ravio is pretty cool, though.” 

“You? Complimenting someone?” Twilight raised his eyebrows. “I’m shocked.”   
“Oh, shut it.” Legend reached over and flicked Twilight’s nose. “I have feelings.”   
“Who would’ve thought.” Warriors whispered to Wind, who laughed. Legend blew a stream of near Warriors’ face. “Hey! You could’ve burned off my eyebrows!”

“What a tragedy.” Wild deadpanned. Legend snorted. 

“Try me, oh great ‘war deity.’” He said. 

“Mr. Hero!” A shrill voice yelled. A boy, dressed in a purple robe that went down to his ankles and an equally purple hood in the shape of a rabbit’s head came running down the road, almost tripping a few times. “I didn’t know when you’d be back!”

“I can’t stay long, Ravio.” Legend said. “Me and my friends have to get to Hyrule Castle.” Ravio’s face fell, but he quickly replaced it with a grin. 

“Then I’m honored you thought of me! Quickly, come inside! I have some luxury goods that your well-off friends might enjoy.” Legend rolled his eyes.  _ Same old Ravio.  _

“So, what’s with the rabbit getup?” Four asked, eyes glinting blue. “It seems unconventional.”   
“Oh, it’s actually because I can turn into a purple rabbit. Kind of like Mr. Hero!” Legend facepalmed. “Had you not told them yet? Sorry!”   
“It’s fine, Ravio.” Legend sighed. “I can turn into a pink rabbit.” He confessed. He waited for them to laugh. “You don’t find it funny?”

“No, I find it hilarious.” Warriors said honestly. “But, I’ve also been bitten by a rabbit.” He held up his arm and exposed a scar, about a half inch long. “And I don’t need to again.” 

“Don’t get too comfortable.” Legend teased. 

“So,” Ravio said, picking at a piece of wood peeling off his table, “I would assume not all of you are Hylian? Mr. Legend has never had much in the way of ordinary acquaintances.” 

“If we tell you, you must not tell anyone else.  _ Anyone. _ ” Time said, taking advantage of his intimidating nature and glaring a hole into Ravio. The merchant swallowed nervously. 

“I can keep a secret, Mr…”

“Time.”   
“Mr. Time. I won’t tell anyone, I swear on my Rupees.” He said, and he even went so far as to pull a Blue Rupee out of a pocket in his tunic and hold it up. 

“Very well, Ravio.” Time decided. “I am a half fairy. Hyrule, as you may have assumed, is a pureblooded fairy. Twilight is a half demon, Wild, myself, and Warriors are deities, Sky is an angel—again, you probably could’ve assumed that—Wind is a selkie, and Four is a brownie.” Time pointed to each of the boys in turn, and each (save for Twilight) waved back. Ravio’s eyebrows raised until they were almost merged with his hairline. 

“That’s quite the group.” He said. “I am surprised you chose to come to me, but happy all the same. I assume you are hungry? Though I will admit I am not the best cook.” 

“I can do the cooking, as long as you have a stove.” Wild said. 

“Yes, yes, right this way!” Ravio led Wild to a back room and came back outside as the sounds of a crackling fire began to sound through the house. “If you all would like, I have a multitude of beds upstairs.”

“Why?” Wind asked, not trying to be rude. “It’s just you in here.”   
“I get many visitors and friends of mine and Mr. Legend’s from time to time.” Ravio said. He turned to Legend. “Why, Rosso just passed through a few days ago. Looking to go find a new mine somewhere north of here.”

“Then he hasn’t changed a bit.” Legend said. Ravio nodded. 

“Who’s Rosso?” Four said. His eyes seemed to glow purple. 

“A friend of ours, gave me my Power Gloves. He’s a golem.” 

“I’ve wrestled a few golems.” Twilight said.

“Really?” Warriors sounded impressed. “Did you cheat?”   
“Well, sort of. I put on a pair of boots to make me heavier, but I didn’t use anything to make myself stronger.”   
“That’s quite the accomplishment. You’ll have to show me how to do that sometime.” Warriors said, and Twilight practically beamed. 

“Twilight!” Wild’s voice yelled from Ravio's makeshift kitchen. “Come here, I need you to do something for me!”   
“Sure thing!” Twilight called and trotted over to Wild. Time tried and failed to keep a smile off his face at how well his newfound family seemed to be getting along. 

“So, you’re going to the Castle?” Ravio asked. Legend nodded. 

“We’re going to speak with the Royal Circle. A few of us have… unfinished business.” He said, rather enigmatically. 

“Ah. I have heard that the Circle is not particularly kind to those of Lorulian descent, so I do not think I will join you. Besides, I’m making money here!” Ravio gestured to the clay pot in the corner of the room that was overflowing with Rupees. Legend resisted the strange urge to run over and smash it to pieces.

“Why is the Circle unkind to you?” Warriors asked. Legend realized he had been trapped in the Temple of Souls for the war against Princess Hilda.

“A telepathic princess tried to steal the Triforce and use it to repair some of the problems in the province.” He explained. “So the Circle doesn’t trust many people from Lorule, and certainly not Ravio.”

“Why not you, specifically?”

“I originally helped Hilda in her conquest.” Ravio admitted. “When I betrayed her, she sentenced me to live here. But, I actually like it here. Away from her and the rest of that chaotic royal family.”

“Are they even allowed to have a royal family? It’s a province.”

“Technically, no.” Time said. “Hilda and her advisor, Yuga, are more of figureheads than anything else.” 

“So… there was a war after the Great War?” Warriors chewed on his lip. 

“There’s been a ridiculous amount since then.” Legend deadpanned. “The Twilight War, Lorule War, the three Wars of the Sea, Vaati’s Rebellion, the War of Voices. There’s probably more battles and such I’m forgetting.”

“The Cult of the Beast’s uprising.” Hyrule said quietly. “And the Yiga terrorist acts a few years ago.”   
“I thought the Great War of Hyrule was going to be the last war.” Warriors said, completely shocked. “I fought to end the fighting. And it was all for nothing! I beat that stupid succubus, I beat her stupid leader, I beat two demons! And it wasn’t enough! I put myself through all those  _ horrors _ —” his voice cracked, “for nothing!  _ Nothing! _ ” He grabbed his scarf and angrily wiped hot tears off his face, storming outside to Ravio’s slightly dilapidated backyard.

“Warriors, wait!” Wind cried, running out to the backyard after his friend. 

“Maybe there was a… nicer way to say that.” Time suggested. 

“I didn’t realize he’d freak out like that.” Legend protested. “Besides, Wind looks like he’s handling it.”  _ I hope he is.  _

“War, are you okay?” Wind looked around the backyard, but he couldn't see his friend. Part of that could be how cluttered the space was, with assorted pots of Rupees and random broken items. There was also a formidable bird cage, though the bird cage didn’t have a bird in it. 

“G-Go away, Wind.” Warrior’s voice said, sounding like he was speaking through tears.

“I want to help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“Well, alright, then I want you to help me.” That seemed to work, as Warriors poked his head out from behind a large wooden sign. His face was tearstained and his eyes were red. 

“With what?”

“I want you to tell me what’s going on with you. I can tell it’s hurting you, and you being hurt hurts me.” 

“A-Alright.” Warriors coughed. “I just… I don’t understand. The Great War was supposed to stop war. And it didn’t.” 

“You can’t stop war. People are horrible.” 

“Oh trust me, I know that. It just feels unfair that innocent people had to fight in wars and I couldn’t help, because I was too busy being stuck in a temple.” 

“You know, fighting in a war doesn’t only have negative consequences.” Wind tried to reason. “You meet people, and you learn things about yourself. Like me and Prince Komali.”

“ _ You  _ fought in a war? So my failure made children have to kill. Great.” Wind cursed a stream of curses that made Warriors’ eyes widen.

“Stop blaming yourself! It’s not your fault Cia was a psychopath who kidnapped you! Besides, I  _ chose _ to fight in the Wars of the Sea! I  _ chose  _ to fight to save my family! Nothing you could’ve possibly done would’ve changed that!” 

“But—”

“But nothing.” Wind interrupted. He lowered his voice and stopped shouting, kneeling next to Warriors and hugging the scarfed boy. “You won a war that kept Hyrule in peace for almost a hundred years. That’s  _ incredible. You  _ are incredible. And I’m proud to have you as a brother.” Warriors made a sound as if he’d been punched and jerked away from Wind, eyes glistening. 

“B-Brother? Is that really how you see me?”

“Of course!”

“But you’ve only known me for a few days!”

“I know family when I see it.” Wind said firmly. He hugged Warriors again, and he felt tears staining his shirt. “Come on, let’s go back to the others.”   
“Yeah. Okay.” Warriors took a deep breath and wiped his face. “Thanks, Wind.” 

“Is everything alright now?” Time asked, laying a hand on Warriors’ shoulder as he and Wind returned to Ravio’s house. Wild and Twilight were putting bowls on the table and filling them with a creamy soup that smelled like pumpkins. 

“It’s better.” Warriors said. Time smiled. 

“I’m glad to hear it.” 

“Hey guys! Want some pumpkin soup? It’s Twi’s recipe, and it’s delicious!”   
“I’m sure it’s not that great, Wild.” Twilight said. “I mean, you’ve practiced cooking for months, and I just picked this recipe up randomly. I’ve never even cooked it myself.” 

“You’re too hard on yourself.” Sky showed Twilight his already half-finished bowl. “I think it’s quite good.” 

“Oh. Thanks.” Twilight blushed. He sat in between Wild and Legend, mostly so if he bumped into either of them it didn’t hurt him. Wind made sure to sit as close to Warriors as possible without actively touching him. 

“Again, thanks so much for thinking of me for your travels!” Ravio said fervently. 

“I was going to stop by again eventually anyways.” Legend said. Ravio grinned. 

“I hope you have safe travels on your way to the Castle.” 

“Thanks. We might be gone before you wake up, since we need to be on the road early.” Legend pushed a Purple Rupee across the table. “And you can have this.”   
“Thank you! This is more than enough to assist me.” 

“You already have, like, a thousand Rupees.”

“One can never have too many!” Ravio put the Rupee into his hood as Legend rolled his eyes. 

As Warriors held his scarf close, lying upstairs on one of Ravio’s excessively fluffy beds, he smiled. The other boys were upstairs trying to fall asleep around him, save for Twilight, who’s snoring was the main background noise. He could hear Legend and Ravio having a hushed discussion downstairs, though he couldn’t make out exactly what they were talking about, and frankly it wasn’t his business. 

He sighed, pushing his bangs out of his face. He still felt ridiculously guilty about not being able to bring peace to Hyrule, but Wind had a point. He’d kept it at peace for a while. And even momentary peace was worth the struggle. 


	10. Hyrule Field

“I liked him.” Wind said as they walked away from Ravio’s house and out of Lorule Province. Hyrule Field separated Hyrule Castle from the rest of Hyrule, and they were currently on the edge of said field. 

“He’s helped me a lot in the past.” Legend replied. “I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t learned not to at this point.” 

“Well, it is convenient that you knew him and we didn’t have to sleep out in the cold.” Warriors said. He added quieter, “I’ve done enough of that in the Temple.” 

“So, we are still about a day away from Hyrule Castle Town, yes?” Sky asked. 

“Unless the map I have is wrong.” Legend replied, holding up a weathered piece of paper that he’d “borrowed” from Ravio. “Which I don’t think it is. So yeah, we’ll be camping out here tonight.” 

“Wilderness camping.” Wind said with a grave nod, which made everyone else break into laughter. “What? That’s what it is!”

“Alright, it’s getting late and we should stop before any Stal enemies decide to turn us into lunch.” Four put his meager amount of supplies onto the ground. Twilight nodded and put his, Wind’s and the rest of Four’s supplies down: he was the physically strongest one of them, and thus carried a lot of extra stuff. 

“I’ll get started on making dinner!” Wild announced. “Does anyone have a recipe they think I should make?”   
“My grandma makes a really good soup, and I think I know what goes into it.” Wind volunteered. 

“Cool! Come here and we can try to make it.” Wild beckoned Wind over to the cooking pot, and the two boys began speaking to each other in hushed whispers about the soup—Time caught the words “fish” and “cream”, so it sounded delicious. 

“Are there… monsters in this field?” Hyrule asked, glancing around nervously. 

“Sometimes, but they’ll probably leave us alone since we’re a group of nine armed young men.” Time said. Hyrule shivered. 

“I hate the dark.” He muttered. “Things hide in it.” Time did not like the tone in Hyrule’s voice; it suggested that said ‘hiding things’ had caused him problems in the past. 

“We’ll need to set watches.” Warriors said, sitting in between Twilight and Sky. “I can take the first.”

“I’ll do second, since it’ll be darkest then.” Twilight said. Warriors nodded. 

“I can take third, then.” Sky nodded at the two of them, and Warriors and Sky high-fived. Twilight smiled, though he didn’t high five Sky. Time bit his lip. He half wished Twilight wasn’t a half demon, if only so he didn’t have to space himself away from his friends. 

“So, Warriors.” Time said, and the war deity’s head snapped around to look at him. Warriors looked almost afraid of him for a moment. “Are you going to be able to adjust to how different things are now?”   
“They’re really not that different, Old Man.” Time made his lips into a thin line at the nickname, but Warriors didn’t notice (or at least, gave no signal that he did). “I mean, sure, there’s been a lot of  _ stuff  _ that happened, but there hasn’t been much in the way of new tech. At least not that I’ve seen. And I suppose knowing that Artemis, Sheik, and Impa are all still alive is very comforting.” He twisted the ends of his scarf around his hands. “I’m looking forward to meeting them again.” 

“I haven’t seen Dusk in a while.” Twilight mused. “I wonder if she’s okay.”

“Nothing I’ve heard has suggested otherwise.” Time said. “So I’m sure she is.” He didn’t mention how Twilight had appeared to not like Princess Dusk a few days before. 

“Alright, guys, soup is done! I’ve already tasted it, and we did a great job.” Wild spun with four bowls along his arms and one on his head. Wind had the other four bowls on his arms. “Now please come and grab them, I don’t think I can walk and not drop them.”   
“You could always just do it one at a time.” Legend suggested dryly. 

“It’s more fun this way.” Wild. Legend and Twilight simultaneously rolled their eyes. Four scoffed into his soup. 

It was only two hours into Warriors’ watch when the Stal monsters came from the ground and started towards him. Warriors cursed, bringing his Ocarina to his lips and blowing the loudest, most shrill note he could manage while drawing his sword with the other hand. 

“What—crap.” Legend was up first, followed by the rest of the heroes who reacted in similar ways. “Why are there so many of them?”

“Who knows!” Warriors said. “We need to kill them.”

“Make sure you get their heads! They can reassemble if you don’t!” Wild said as he drove his “weapon” through a skull. In reality, said weapon was a rusted pitchfork he’d found on the ground. But, it was effective. 

“Got it.” Four muttered. He was about the same size as the Stalkoblins, which was both annoying and terrifying. And there were almost fifty of the monsters, and they just kept coming and coming. The boys were rapidly getting overwhelmed, even Time. The fact that almost all of them were wielding crude weapons they’d bought or found was part of it; hopefully the Royal Circle had some weapons they could use. 

_ Should we split?  _ Green asked.  _ I feel like we’re going to lose if we don’t. _

__ _ I agree.  _ Vio’s voice cut through his mind.  _ Splitting is the best course of action so we don’t get killed.  _

__ _ But do we want the others to know we can split?  _ Red sounded uncertain.  _ We don’t want them to get mad at us! _

__ _ If they get mad at us, I’ll smack them!  _ Blue exclaimed.  _ Let’s split!  _

__ _ Alright…  _ Red’s voice trailed off as Four raised his Four Sword, and he split into his duplicates. Blue and Green immediately paired off and began dealing with a Stalkoblin, which left Red and Vio as a pair. 

“What in Hylia’s name—Four?!” Wind exclaimed, looking at Red and Vio. “Is that you?”   
“Parts of us.” Vio said. “It’s a lot of work to explain, and we are in the middle of a battle.”   
“Fair point.” Wind muttered. He whipped out a deadly spin attack and flung the heads from three Stalkoblins. Vio and Red quickly finished off the heads. 

Across the field of breaking bones, Twilight and Time made a terrifying duo. Time had pulled out a bow from somewhere and was shooting Stalkoblin skulls as Twilight dashed through their ranks and ripped them apart with his  _ bare hands _ . It was honestly a bit unfair, in Blue’s opinion, that Twilight didn’t even need to use his wolf form, whilst everyone else was using some form of traditional weaponry (if Wild’s pitchfork could be counted as traditional weaponry). Warriors and Sky were back to back, and Sky’s wings were spread out and blowing back and forth to push Stalkoblins away. Warriors was a tornado of destruction as he spun and jumped and flipped and  _ danced _ through the bones. Green and Blue had ended up fighting next to Wild, who gave them one glance, raised an eyebrow, and went right back to fighting. Blue silently thanked Hylia that Wild didn’t ask any questions, lest he say something… inappropriate to someone he’d just met. As they typically did, Legend and Hyrule had paired up. Legend was breathing fire and using his sword. Hyrule covered him by sending strategic bolts of lightning. The remaining Stalkoblins were just beginning to sink into the ground as something massive—so massive that every step it took caused the ground to shudder—stomped towards them. A behemoth cyclops beast, with unlucky soldier’s weapons sticking out of its bones. 

“Stalnox!” Wild shouted, though it wasn't very helpful. None of them had ever seen anything like that beast before. Sure, they’d seen Hinoxes, but certainly not this emaciated bony version. “Knock the eye out and kill it!” 

“Understood!” Time was already nocking an arrow as Twilight (now using a sword), Warriors, and Sky began to hack away at the Stalnox’s legs. Red, Vio, Blue, and Green looked at each other, nodded, and ran up to the beast. They started to climb up its legs and ribs, using their Four Swords to slice its spine. Legend coughed, ignoring the cinders he sprayed onto the ground as he inhaled and prepared to shoot off another burst of flame. Hyrule, though his legs were shaking and his head was spinning, opted to use more magic instead of a sword. Wind and Wild didn’t aim for the Stalnox, they were circling it and making sure that no more Stal monsters surprised them. Wild did, however, shoot the occasional bolt of lightning at the beasts’ head. 

With a squelching and sickening  _ pop _ , the Stalnox’s eye flew from its skull, landing on the ground and bouncing around. 

“Kill it! Hit it!” Wild exclaimed. 

The poor eyeball never stood a chance against the combined efforts of seven young men and boys with swords. 

“Phew, we did it.” Wind said, out of breath. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Not severely.” Sky looked over the group. Hyrule was almost asleep on his feet, with Legend supporting him. Time had gotten blisters on his fingers from drawing back his bowstring and letting go too fast, but they would heal quickly. Warriors had a bruise over one eye, Sky’s wings were missing a few scarlet feathers, and Twilight’s fingers were covered in blood—seemed he’d torn at least three fingernails when he’d been punching and ripping apart the Stals. The Fours were thankfully unharmed. 

“Alright, do you want to explain yourself?” Time put his hands on his hips as he asked Blue, Red, Green, and Vio.

“We’re Four.” Vio said. “We’re all parts of him. Or rather, parts of his personality.”   
“Huh.” Warriors cocked an eyebrow and sheathed his sword. “Honestly, I’m not that surprised.”   
“Should we join back?” Vio asked the others. 

“Probably.” Green said. He put his hand on Vio’s shoulder. Vio put his hand on Red’s, Red put his on Blue’s, and Blue put his on Green’s. They furrowed their faces with concentration and merged back into Four, who blinked his multicolored eyes. 

“I need to sit down.” He said, moments before pitching forward. Sky caught him. 

“Does anyone have Red Potions?” Legend said. His voice was hoarse and raw. “Please tell me someone does.”   
“Malon made me bring some.” Time remembered, reaching into his pack and taking out a grand total of five bottled Red Potions. He gave one to Legend and one to Sky. He also drank one himself before trying to give the fourth one to Twilight, who shook his head. 

“I don’t need one.”   
“Pup, yes you do.” Time said. “Your hands look like they were attacked by cats.”

“I can just bandage my hands, it’ll be fine.” Twilight retorted stubbornly. “It doesn’t even hurt that much.” With an annoyed noise, Four reached up and grabbed one of Twilight’s fingers. The half-demon recoiled with a yelp and a snarl. Time gave Twilight a pointed look. “Okay, fine.” He drank the fourth Red Potion, which left them with one. 

“I can heal if anyone needs it.” Hyrule offered, but Legend shook his head.

“You’re practically unconscious already. And no one is hurt badly enough.”

“Oh. Okay.” Hyrule closed his eyes against Legend’s shoulder. 

“We should get going. The sun is almost up.” Warriors said, squinting at the horizon. 

“But we barely got any sleep!” Sky whined. 

“Your princess is only a day away.” Legend said teasingly. Sky paused and thought. 

“Alright, fine. But it’s not fair to make them—” He pointed at Wind, Four, and Hyrule, “—walk that long with no sleep.”

“I’ll carry Wind.” Warriors said. 

“I don’t need to be carried!” Wind said firmly, but he looked moments away from falling asleep. “Alright, I do.” Warriors chuckled as he picked up Wind. Twilight grabbed Four, and Time carried Hyrule—though it was a bit awkward, with his wings getting in the way. 

“Let’s get going to Hyrule Castle.” 


	11. The Royal Circle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is a little backstory heavy :P

“Here we are, Hyrule Castle Town!” Wind was grinning as he pointed at various things. He’d fallen asleep on Warriors’ shoulder for the majority of the day long trip, and was now full of energy. The same applied to Hyrule. 

“This… looks almost exactly like how I remember it.” Warriors said in shock. “I thought it would be different.”

“Surprise, it’s not.” Legend said dryly. Warriors cuffed one of the half-dragon’s curling horns. “Hey, watch it!”

“So how do we get an audience with the princesses?” Wild asked Time, practically bouncing up and down with anticipation. 

“As far as I know, they are always accepting visitors. We can go and ask to see them.” Time guessed. “Let’s just go to the Castle. The less time we waste, the better.”   
“Agreed.” Twilight muttered. He seemed very nervous about seeing the Royal Circle, judging by how pale he was and the way he was fiddling with the necklace he wore. Said necklace was what appeared to be a shard of metal, dark gray in color with teal lines slashing through it. It was quite unique; Time had never seen anything like it before. “What do we do if they say no?” 

“We pester their royal little socks off until they say yes.” Legend said. Time shrugged. 

“That would work, I suppose.” He muttered. He glanced up from the road to see two Hylian guards, armed with rusty spears, running towards them.

“Stop! What business do you have with the princesses?”

“We have to speak with them.” Sky said. He made his voice sound desperate and pleading, and Time suspected not all of it was acting. “Please, noble soldiers.” The guards subconsciously straightened their stances. “I’m begging you.”

“The princesses are not seeing anymore people today.” One of them said. “Please come back tomorrow.”   
“Can they at least see if  _ they  _ want to talk to us?” Wild suggested. “Allow one of us inside and the princesses can decide for themselves.” 

“Hmm… very well. You may choose who to send, but not him.” The guard pointed at Twilight. Time clenched his fist. 

“I’ll go.” Sky volunteered. “I’ll be right back.” He said over his shoulder as the two guards escorted him past the castle gate. 

Sky had been right, it only took him about a half hour before he returned, with a large grin on his face. 

“They’re going to see us.” He said brightly. Time smiled. 

“Then by all means, lead the way.” 

“Faithful and righteous princesses,” Warriors said, kneeling before the four seemingly cold faces in front of him:

Princess Artemis, with her rapier at her hip and massive golden wings, so large that their ends dragged on the floor. Her pink, flowing dress was outfitted with silver armor around her hips and torso, a bit like a metal corset. 

Princess Sun, who was not carrying anything besides a glistening harp. She had pink bird wings, like Sky’s, marking her as an angel. She was clad in a white dress that went almost down to the floor, and her golden hair was plaited with shining ribbons.

Princess Dusk, wearing a draping black cloak with a hood that shadowed her face. A bit of her very pale collarbone could be seen within the cowl of her hood, and she was wearing a dull purple dress. Small fangs poked out from her lip—a vampire. 

Princess Flora, dressed in her research uniform: clean blue shirt, simple trousers, fingerless gloves, one boot on the left leg. Her right leg below the knee, as well as three fingers on her left hand, were replaced by wonders of Sheikah technology. 

“I come to you to reunite with an old friend—” Warriors was cut off as Artemis let out a squeal quite unbecoming of a princess and leapt down the stairs—an impressive feat for someone in four inch high heels—and hugged him so tightly he could barely breathe. 

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you…” She murmured, and Warriors could tell she was crying into his shoulder. Based on the wetness of his face, he was too. 

“I’m sorry it took me so long.” He whispered. Artemis flicked his nose. 

“Don’t apologize.” She stepped back a pace. “I know you gave up your immortality twenty years ago. I did too.”

“You— _ what? _ ” Warriors was stunned. “How did you know?”   
“Impa and Sheik did a ritual to sense where you were. We couldn’t figure out where, but we got a good look at how you were doing. Not too well, it seemed.”   
“Agreed.” Warriors smiled, and Artemis returned the expression. 

“Can I say hi now?” Sun asked. 

“You could’ve to begin with.” Dusk pointed out. With that, Sun quite literally flew down the stairs and barrelled into Sky. The couple began speaking in hushed tones, punctuated by a few light kisses. Wind made a gagging sound. Four slapped him. 

“Wild.” Flora said, and while she was smiling slightly, her voice was hard. “Where were you?”

“I, uh… got lost.” Wild rubbed the back of his neck. “And everything just spiraled from there.” 

“Don’t do it again. I was worried about you.”

“I’ll try not to.” Wild sounded sincere, but Time knew that it probably wasn’t going to go as Wild and Flora planned. Flora walked carefully down the stairs, the tech in her left leg whirring, and hugged Wild. Which left Princess Dusk as the only woman still standing on the dais. 

“Twilight.” She said with a respectful and not particularly friendly nod. 

“Princess Dusk.” Twilight returned the nod and refused to make eye contact with the princess after that. He was clutching his necklace until his knuckles turned white. 

“We have come to reunite with friends, as you may have guessed.” Time said. “I am afraid we do not have a particular reason for visiting.”

“That’s okay!” Sun told him. “I’m just happy to see that Sky’s okay! And he found some friends!” 

“Could we… stay the night here?” Wind asked tentatively. “It’s getting a little late.” 

“Of course you can.” Flora said. “Oh! What are all of your names?”   
“I’m Wind, you already know Wild, and that’s Warriors, Wild, Sky, Four, Time, Twilight, Legend, and Hyrule.” Wind said. 

“Hello, Princess Flora.” Hyrule waved, face red. 

“Oh please, just Flora is fine.”

“Alright.” 

“I will show you to your rooms, if you would follow me.” Artemis said. Time nodded. 

“Twilight?” Dusk inquired. She coughed into a gloved hand. “Could you wait here? I’d like to talk to you.”   
“I’m afraid not, princess.” Twilight said with considerable venom. “Unlike you, I need to sleep at night.” Dusk flinched as if Twilight had slapped her, but she did not press him as Artemis led the nine boys down the halls in awkward silence. 

“I promise, we will discuss things with you in the morning.” She said. Warriors nodded. 

“Thank you, Ari.” Artemis blushed and left the bedroom.

“Ari?” Legend cocked an eyebrow. 

“An old nickname.” Warriors said wistfully, sitting down on one of the beds. It creaked under his weight as he began removing his armor. “Sky, I thought you’d want to sleep with Sun.” 

“W-what?!” Sky choked. “We’re not t-there yet.” 

“Huh. A shame. She’s quite pretty, you know.”   
“Warriors.” Time said warningly. 

“What? I wasn’t going to press him.” Warriors scoffed and rolled his eyes. Sky placed a hand on his chest to steady his breathing and sat down on his own bed. 

“Twilight?” Wild said, coming up next to the other boy, who was tugging off his boots. It was a challenge, considering he refused to take his other hand off of the necklace that hung around his neck. “Do you want any help?”   
“N-No, I’m good.” Twilight said. His voice hitched and Wild’s inquisitive expression became one of concern. “Thanks though, Cub.” Twilight sighed and put his boots back on. “You know what? I’m going to go for a walk. I’ll be back in a half hour.” Without waiting for a reaction, Twilight stood and strode out the door, leaving Wild and Time in worried silence. Wild moved to follow him, but was blocked by Time’s arm. 

“Let him take a walk. If it takes him more than a half hour, you can go after him.” Wild pursed his lips and sat back on his bed, kneading his hands into the cushiony mattress. For a few moments, the only sound in the room was Legend and Hyrule’s talking and Sky’s snores—the angel had, miraculously, already fallen asleep. 

“Why don’t we all just try to get some sleep.” Four suggested, climbing onto his bed and burying himself under three thick blankets, one of which was stolen from Wind’s bed. The others nodded, save for Wild, who wouldn’t be able to sleep until he knew Twilight was safe and not in pain somewhere, alone. 

It had been forty five minutes. Twilight had not yet returned to the room. Wild gave up on waiting and gnawing his lip until it bled and stood up. He crept from the bedroom, realizing he had no idea where Twilight would be. 

“Where would I go, if I was him?” He wondered aloud, voice echoing off the stone. “Probably somewhere lonely and outside.” 

“Can I help you, s-sir?” A white-haired girl asked, carrying a small red paper lantern that had not yet been lit. Her right eye was painted with a Sheikah eye symbol. 

“Yes; do you know if there is a garden or a courtyard here?”

“The gardens are just down that hallway, take three rights and a left.” The girl said. Her face was slowly turning the color of the lantern in her hand. “Goodnight.”   
“Thank you!” Wild called after her. The girl’s only audible response was a squeak. Wild shrugged, following her instructions as he went down a maze of halls. Artifacts were placed on pedestals along the walls, most of which he did not recognize: a blue porcelain ocarina, a knitted pair of bunny ears, a pair of red clay earrings, a mysterious stone rod, an empty wooden painting frame. Each was labeled, though Wild did not take the time to read the labels. 

The white haired girl had been right, he realized, as Wild came to a hallway that ended in a door with a picture of a flower on it. He opened the door, stepping into a beautiful garden. There was a stone fountain in the middle with benches around it, hedges blooming with flowers of every shape and color, and even a few plaques on some trees, giving credit to heroes who had fought in wars. 

Twilight was sitting on one of the benches by the fountain, alternating between looking up at the full moon, with its strange face-like design, and the mirror-like fountain’s waters. He still had the necklace clutched in one hand. 

“Twi?” Wild said, keeping his voice quiet. Even so, the other boy startled and almost fell off of his bench. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing.” Twilight said. Wild noticed that his voice sounded as if he’d been crying. “Go back to bed.” Wild shook his head and sat next to Twilight. Now that he was closer, it was relatively easy to hear the shuddering breaths Twilight was trying to keep quiet. Wild put his hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Your necklace is quite unique.” He said. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

“I… it’s one of the mirror pieces I’ve been trying to find.” Twilight took his hand off the necklace and showed the charm to Wild. It did resemble a fragment of a mirror, albeit a very small fragment. 

“Twilight, you’re bleeding!” Wild suddenly exclaimed. He pointed at Twilight’s hand, the one that had been clutching the mirror shard. It was sliced through the palm, and Twilight merely sighed when he looked at it. 

“I’ll just bandage it later.” He said offhandedly. “It’s fine.” 

“Why did you stay so long out here?” Wild asked. Twilight shrugged. 

“I just… wanted to be outside. With the moon and the stars. And I wanted to be away from Princess Dusk, I guess.”

“What happened between the two of you? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“N-No, it’s fine. I guess I’m going to have to tell someone about it eventually anyways.” Twilight took a deep breath that rattled in his chest, scrubbing at his face with his uninjured hand. “We fought together in the War of Twilight, down in Ordon? A demon broke through into our realm from another, and he started to enslave the people there. I was captured and given my… abilities. Both demonic and lupine. I eventually was freed by an imp named Midna, who helped me as I battled the Twilight Realm’s forces. We eventually won, using Princess Dusk’s sealing powers to send the demon back to where he’d come from. Midna used a mirror portal to travel back, revealing herself as the rightful princess to the Twilight Realm. She went through the mirror, and she  _ shattered  _ it. The pieces flew all across Hyrule, which is why I’ve been so desperate to find them. I want to see her again. I know it’s foolish, but I’m angry at Dusk for not doing anything to stop her from going. I’m angry at myself, too.” Twilight glanced at the fountain, seeing his reflection, and looked away. 

“I barely remember the war of Twilight.” Wild said honestly. “Parts of my memory were stolen around that time. I was so focused on regaining what I’d lost that I didn’t take any time to look around me.” He sounded bitter. “I wish I could’ve helped you.”

“I doubt Flora would’ve let you.” Twilight chuckled. “Her adaptations are a wonder of science, you know. I have a friend who would kill to learn about it.”   
“She studied Sheikah tech a lot, before we were captured. She built most of her prosthetics by herself, in her study.”

“That’s incredible. Honestly. Who captured you? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

“I will. You just told me a lot about yourself. I should return the favor.” Wild picked at his fingernails. “We were both captured by a cult known as the Yiga clan. They’re corrupted Sheikah warriors. My four best friends were captured along with us. Revali, Mipha, Urbosa, and Daruk. They’re a harpy, a mermaid, a lightning deity, and a giant, respectively. We were tortured by the Yiga, because we were apparently supposed to help with resurrecting Ganon. Which is dumb, Ganon has been dormant for years.” Wild kicked at the dirt. “My friends were killed. I almost was, too, after they took my immortality away. Lucky for me, I guess, Flora’s sealing powers awakened. She ripped their base apart and saved my life in a shrine, but it took my memories away. Amnesia is not particularly fun, I can safely say that much.”

“I’ve never lost close friends.” Twilight mused. “Well, besides Dusk and Midna. Sort of. I would say I’m sorry that happened to you, but I have a feeling a lot of people have told you that.”   
“You’re right. Also, can we keep what we said here a secret? I don’t want the others to pity me.”

“Of course we can.” Twilight said. Wild offered him a gentle smile in response. “Thank you, Wild. I… I needed that.” 

“It feels good to get things off your chest.”

“Indeed it does. Now let’s head back.”   


“Where were you two?” Time said as Twilight and Wild entered, before he noticed that Wild was intently wrapping a bandage around Twilight’s hand. “What happened?”

“Nothing. We were just on a midnight stroll.” Twilight said. 

“Are you both alright?”

“Just fine, dad.” Twilight said cheekily as he climbed into bed. Wild did the same. Twilight seemed to be a little too tired to realize he’d just called Time ‘dad’, and if Time was being honest with himself, he didn’t mind it. He had come to think of these boys as his family, after all. 


End file.
